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2021 Suffolk Univ. L. Rev. Online Ed. 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/sfkunvlwrv2021 and id is 1 raw text is: SUN YAT-SEN'S SAN-MIN DOCTRINE AND ITS LEGACY IN CHINESE CONSTITUTIONALISM: THREE PRINCIPLES FOR TWO SYSTEMS Federico Lorenzo Ramaiolil I. INTRODUCTION In spite of the ideological and political divergences characterizing the constitutional systems of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC, commonly Taiwan), it is possible, however, to draw some parallelisms,2 amongst which a less explored one refers to the legacy of Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People ( -_I), or San-min doctrine.3 Sun developed these three principles - usually resumed in nationalism, democracy and livelihood of the people - as a political guideline for the reconstruction of China after the 1911 revolution, combining traditional Chinese culture with Western doctrines on law and government.4 The formulation of the three principles was influenced by Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address of 1863, affirming the necessity of establishing a government of the people, by the people, for the people, and at a certain extent by the French Revolution's three principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. The three principles, accepted as an official political program by the Kuomintang, are not simply the expression of a philosophical belief, but also an ideological and cultural doctrine for the edification of a new political structure-as well as for the political reorientation of China after the overthrow of the heavenly empire-however, not without ambiguities and unsolved tensions.5 According to Sun, indeed, a doctrine must begin with an idea, the idea must produce a faith, and the faith in turn must give birth to power.6 As they have been described, they are a complex product of revolutionary ideals interwoven with compromise.7 After 1949, in the impossibility of applying them in a unified China, the three principles came to exercise a certain influence on the constitutional systems of the two States, which followed an independent way of legal and political evolution. The constitution of the ROC was promulgated in 1947 to be implemented in all China.The establishment of Taipei as temporary capital in 1949 by Chiang Kai-shek, however, led to its enforcement only in Taiwanese territory prior to its almost immediate suspension in the Mobilization period, which lasted until May 1991. After that, the charter was adapted to this new reality following a process of Taiwanization8 through progressive amendments in the broader framework of the

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