Abstract: Taking the Marxist stands, viewpoints, and methods as the starting point and guided by the Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, this article makes scientific judgments on the nature, connotation, characteristics, and dialectical relationship between legal reform and legal innovation, with a view to establishing solid logical and institutional connections between the rule of law and Chinese-style modernization. In the process of promoting the development and progress of the rule of law through institutionalized legal reform and legal innovation and promoting the overall realization of Chinese-style modernization through the modernization of the rule of law, the rule of law, reform, and innovation go hand in hand and complement each other. In the new era and the new journey, we must first adhere to the ideas of reform and innovation to promote the development of various undertakings of comprehensive law-based governance and ultimately realize the policy objective of "making the rule of law an important guarantee for Chinese-style modernization", proposed in the Decision of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. 

Key Words: legal reform; legal innovation; modernization of the rule of law; Chinese-style modernization; innovation of constitutional practice

Author: Mo Jihong, director of CASS Institute of Law; dean, professor, and doctoral supervisor, Law School of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; member of Academic Committee of China Law Society; executive vice chairman of the Constitutional Law Society of China Law Society.

Source: 12 (2024) Study & Exploration.