The China Lectures. Constitutional Reform in China: A Contribution to the Debate

How can a modern society lay a solid foundation for further progress?

In the China Lectures, José Stelle offers a guide to the constitutional reform necessary for any such project.

At the core of Stelle’s lectures is the idea that a strict application of the rule of law is fundamental to any constitutional system. He examines how different peoples have attempted to secure this ideal by different means; in what measure they succeeded; in what measure they failed; the consequences of their success or failure; and how those failures can be avoided in the future. Stelle builds on the model of constitutional reform proposed by F.A. Hayek in his 1979 book Law, Legislation, and Liberty, going beyond Hayek’s constitutional “reinvention” to offer his own recipe for preventing unjust laws and constitutional abuses — and creating a system that promotes freedom, prosperity, and peace.

These lectures were given at Fudan University (Shanghai) in the fall of 2013.