Experimentalist approach of Chinese legislation model: From passive response to institutional design

This article discusses China's experimental legislation—its forms, controversies over its legitimacy, sources and prospects—to illustrate that experimental legislation is an outcome of social development and an important policy tool in this country. In China, experimental legislation is expected to play an increasingly important role. The future construction of the Chinese legal system requires that more attention is paid to the systematic design of legislative experiments. In addition to the top-down reform approach, the design of experiments should adopt an ‘open-coordination method’ for the purposes of strengthening cooperation, exchange, and evaluation among the parties, revising the framework and procedures of experimental legislation, and reconciling the tension between the legitimacy and effectiveness of experimental legislation.