The Ricci Dictionary of Chinese Law Online

The Ricci Dictionary of Chinese Law (Chinese-English, French), developed by the Ricci Association since 2006, is the very first trilingual dictionary on Chinese law. The dictionary includes approximately 24,000 legal terms in Chinese (legal terms per se as well as terms which are often used in a legal context), as well as English and French translations of these terms. A team of around 40 French, Chinese and English-speaking lawyers, scholars, law students and proofreaders contributed to the dictionary under the supervision and guidance of the Ricci Association.

The dictionary focuses on "Chinese law," i.e. legal terms used by legal professionals working on Chinese legal documents. In the minds of the editors of the dictionary, law includes "actual" law (i.e., instruments and decisions of governmental authorities and courts which are legally enforceable against anyone falling in their scope), "past" law (i.e., laws that were "actual" some time ago but are not anymore) as well as law as a subject of theoretical discussion and an academic discipline. The dictionary includes 20 branches, including Ancient Law, Administrative Law, Admiralty Law, Banking and Financial Law, Civil Law, Commercial Law, Company Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Environmental Law, Institutions, Insurance Law, International Private Law, International Public Law, International Trade Law, IP Law, Jurisprudence, Labour Law, Procedure, and Tax Law. The terms included in the branches of international element (e.g., International Private Law, International Public Law and International Trade Law) can generally be characterized as relating to actual law or law as an academic discipline.

The Dictionary would be invaluable to:

  • lawyers in English and French speaking countries working with/on PRC (People’s Republic of China) legal documents in Chinese;
  • professional translators;
  • academics working with PRC legal documents in Chinese in the fields of Chinese studies, legal studies and comparative social science studies;
  • students outside China studying PRC legal documents; and
  • journalists commenting on Chinese legal issues.