Why Does China's Constitution Belong to "Us"?

 LIN Laifan * & TAN Yinhao**

Abstract: The development of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China to date has been driven by the will of the people, and it can rightly be called “the constitution of we the people.” However, the justification for why the constitution deserves our intergenerational recognition does not rely solely on historical narratives; it can also be clarified by exploring its normative characteristics. First, in terms of functional positioning, China’s Constitution is not only the “fundamental charter for governing the country and ensuring national stability” but also ideally expected to be the “guarantee for the people’s happiness.” Only by safeguarding the basic dignity and rights of every individual will future generations recognize the constitution. The normative characteristics of China’s Constitution also lie in its preamble that contains historical narratives, its democratic orientation, the coexistence of two types of programmatic provisions, and its textual feature of combining explicit and implicit content. These characteristics not only mark the uniqueness of China’s Constitution but also enable constitutional practice to continuously develop into a common cause of “we the people.” Moreover, the constitutional spirit of safeguarding human dignity, as a fundamental characteristic, provides the ultimate rationale for “the goodness of the constitution.” In the new era, we must further promote the implementation of the constitution, give play to its function as the “guarantee for the people’s happiness,” carry forward its outstanding normative characteristics, and enable the people to gain a genuine sense of fulfillment and happiness through concrete and vivid constitutional practice.

Keywords: China's Constitution · constitutional norms · happiness · constitutional implementation · human dignity