A Comment on the Rise and Fall of the Supreme People's Court's Reply to Qi Yuling's Case (Infringement Upon Qi's Right of Name and Right to Receive Education) (Symposium: Constitutional Review in the People's Republic of China‪)‬

On July 24, 2001, the Supreme People's Court of China (SPC or the Supreme Court) promulgated a new judicial interpretation. This interpretation, commonly referred to as the "Reply to Qi Yuling's Case" took effect on August 13, 2001. (2) On December 18, 2008, however, the Supreme Court annulled twenty-seven judicial interpretations at once, including the Reply to Qi Yuling's Case. The reason given for the annulment of the Reply was that it was "no longer applicable." (3) From its birth to its demise, the Reply survived seven years, four months, and five days in China's legal system. Although it was never actually applied to a single case after Qi Yuling's Case, there were disputes regarding the Reply in the Chinese legal circle, which attracted almost all of the foreign scholars studying Chinese law. (4) From the very beginning, I have been one of the major participants in this long-lasting discussion and the last resolution fully adopted my point of view. (5) For many years, I insisted that the Reply to Qi Yuling's Case was unnecessary and suspiciously unconstitutional. (6)