Ng Kei Kei, assistant professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Macau (who is also a researcher by courtesy at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities), recently published a paper titled “The History of Kanji Translation of the term Rechtsgeschäft in Japan and its Spread in China” in the prestigious top law journal “Chinese Journal of Law” (No.1, 2025).
His paper reveals in detail how the term “法律行為”(houritsukoui in Japanese Kanji; faluxingwei in Chinese Hanzi) was created as an inaccurate translation of the German term Rechtsgeschäft during the Meiji period in Japan, how it was introduced into China during the late Qing Dynasty through translations of Japanese works and lectures by Chinese students studying in Japan, how China missed the chance to revise it due to the bad quality of these translations, and how it was criticized by Japanese and Chinese doctrines in the previous and current centuries. Notably, during his visit to Japan and Taiwan of China, Professor Ng collected and uncovered some highly significant primary sources that have never been known and cited, especially the following two: firstly, the translation “法律行為” was already criticized by Yu Qichang as early as 1917, 90 years earlier than previously supposed in the academic circle; secondly, in 1977, Liu Shihmin proposed changing the translation from “法律行為” to “法律事務” (falushiwu, i.e., legal business lato sensu), which is also what Professor Ng believes to be the best translation, marking the first historical attempt to revise the original translation.
The journal “Chinese Journal of Law“, published by the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is a CLSCI, CSSCI, and AMI top-ranking journal, representing the highest level of legal research and the latest contribution to legal science in China. It is often referred to as one of “the three great law journals” along with “China Legal Science” and “Social Sciences in China“.