Author Description

This dissertation, "An Analysis of the Changing Nature of Law and Social Solidarity in Contemporary China: the Application of Durkheim's Theory of Solidarity to Chinese Society" by Peng, Han,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: This research is in socio-legal studies, focusing on the application of Durkheim's theory of solidarity to Chinese society. The purpose of the study is to analyze the changing nature of law and social solidarity in China since 1982. It also aims to examine how certain social features identified during the transition promote or hinder, or are themselves affected by, the changes in the nature of social solidarity since 1982 through an analysis of the changing nature, content, variety and the intensity of laws. "Social features" refers to certain social phenomena which occur during social transition, among which "decline of collective consciousness," "rise of individualism," "state and law" and "anomie" are specifically referred to in this thesis. The extent to which legal changes represent changes in the nature of social solidarity will also be explained. My hypothesis is that China is in an important transitional period during which both repressive law and restitutive law change in nature, content, intensity and variety. The corresponding two solidarities represented by those two types of laws coexist and both change since 1982. The tension between the two solidarities may result in anomies creating social problems. Although some research has been conducted in the use of Durkheim's theory to examine Chinese social solidarity, such research lacks an in-depth analysis