Bulletin Number Three 1984

Centre for Contemporary Asian Studies CCAS ， or Centre for Contemporary Asian Studies, is one of the two research centres of the Institute of Social Studies. The Institute emerged as a result of the reorganization of the Institute of Social Studies and the Humanities in September 1982. The six centres — Centre for Communication Studies, Centre for East Asian Studies, Economic Research Centre, Geographical Research Centre, Public Affairs Research Centre, and Social Research Centre — under the former Institute were consolidated into the present CCAS and the Centre for Hong Kong Studies. CCAS is established to encourage and coordinate interdisciplinary research on Asia, especially China and Southeast Asia by international scholars and faculty of the University. At present, four main programmes are being carried out: the Chinese Law Programme, the Chinese Society Programme, the Overseas Chinese Archives and the Population Research Programme. The Chinese Law Programme The Chinese Law Programme, or the Programme on Law and State-Building, is a long-term project, originating in the former research project on Recent Legal Development in China carried out by the Public Affairs Research Centre. The Honourable Mr. Justice T.L. Yang is the Coordinator and Dr. Byron S.J.Weng of the Government and Public Administration Department, the Secretary. General Meetings are held at regular intervals, at which guests from overseas and Mainland China are invited to give talks on various aspects of Chinese law. So far, three Conferences have been held and the fourth one is scheduled for October 1984. The first Conference, held in 1981 ， was entitled ‘Legal System and State-Building in China', and the papers presented were published in Ming Pao Monthly. The 1982 Conference, with the focus on 'The Constitutional Development in China', was attended by more than thirty participants, including scholars from the United States, Japan, China and France. Papers presented have been revised and edited for publication. The 1983 Conference discussed problems arising from China's Constitutions. Revised conference papers are now being serialized in Ming Pao Monthly. The 1984 Conference will focus on economic laws and development in China. About thirty participants will be invited to deliver papers on China's economic crimes, legal control over business enterprises, contract laws, economic system, etc. For 1983-84 ， research on China's economic law is being planned. Editing of a Yearbook of Laws and Regulations of the PRC is being seriously considered. The Documentation Unit of the Programme aims initially at compiling a Chinese law catalogue, and a file of 7,000 index cards of laws and decrees ever promulgated in Mainland China has been made so far. A bibliography of legal studies (mainly books published in the Mainland) since 1949 is also under preparation. Besides, a Chronology of Chinese Legal Affairs (1949-1981) has been compiled primarily on Xin-hua Monthly sources. The Chinese Society Programme The Chinese Society Programme, or Sociology and the Study of Contemporary Chinese Society, is a programme of teaching and research supported by the Lingnan University Board of Trustees. The Coordinator of the Programme is Dr. Pedro Ng of the Department of Sociology. A special emphasis of the Chinese Society Programme is collaboration and exchange between the Sociology Departments of this University and Zhongshan University in Guangzhou. Altogether six young scholars and graduate students from Zhongshan have come to this University to attend courses, collect data and undertake special studies. In July and August 1983 ， several faculty members of this University attended a Sociology workshop at Zhongshan University. The study of Chinese rural communes in Guangdong Province is a major project of the Programme. Members of the Departments of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work started their study on Doushan Commune in Taishan County where they paid a visit in 1976 and a book on People's Commune and Rural Development: The Experience of Doushan Commune in Taishan County (in Chinese) was published in 1981 10 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS