From Political Constitution to Staatscrecht

Since 2008, China’s constitutional scholarship has brought the controversy between political constitutionalism and normative constitutionalism. China’s political constitutionalism has its unique social background, which is influenced by Britain’s political constitution. However, there is not a lot of consensus within Chinese political constitutional scholarship;and, there is a different theoretical background from UK. Although China also adopts parliamentary supremacy, it has a written constitution. There exists a tension between parliamentary supremacy and constitutional supremacy in China. Since 2017, there has been a shift of Staatsrechtslehre in China, which could be seen as a continuation of this discussion. It is suggested that Böckenförde's view of “Staatsrecht as a framework” can provide a way to solve this tension. Moreover, Böckenförde’s writings on constitutional change and the separation of state and society can provide great inspiration to China’s constitutional theories.