The Bridge to a Western Confucianism: Between Legal Theory and Private Law

The aim of this essay is to analyse the future of Confucianism in Western societies or, at least, through the exegesis of Western scholars. To realize this overview definitely means to verify how Confucian thought crossed many contemporary and later theories, especially in juridical fields as the theory of private law and the public comparative law. That system of customary rules and pragmatic ethics did not fail to face the modernity by enlarging its views in the context of much more complex societies: So, a typical phenomenon of Eastern civilities, to the point that it is generally considered the most peculiar inheritance of both Chinese spirituality and administrative political science, became an interesting and suggestive test bench for different starting points. If it is correct to say that this is not a proper nowadays stance (remembering the praise of Leibniz and Voltaire, for instance), it is even more likely that Confucianism will catch the attention of a larger academic audience also in the nearest future and not only narrowing its rise to the enormous economic growth of the Chinese influence and ruling role in the world, directly getting a level of strength not far from the American governance. Unsurprisingly, the first defined approaches to a Western Confucianism, mixing elements from its absolutely unique written or traditional sources and aspects taken from the comparison with other cultures, are still coming from United States’ universities, in the scientific field of sinology and, step by step, comparative law’s scholars and legal theorists. This fascinating development that opens up Confucian ethics to a bigger spectre of teachings and belongings is happening while Confucian rituals, temples, and precepts are reaching in modern days China an always more cohesive and aggregating religious phenomenology. The West looks for ideas, while the East is trying to find stability around a metaphysical substructure of common values to prevent conflicts and to keep societies safe.