ABSTRACT

Under the direction of the Communist Party of China (CPC), key legal challenges have been identified which will shape the modernization of China’s legal and administrative institutions. An increasingly complex set of legal actors now seek to influence this development, including securities regulators, bankers, accountants, lawyers, local-level mediators and some of China’s newly rich. Whilst the rising middle class wants to voice its interests and concerns, the CPC strives to maintain its leading role.

This book provides a critical appraisal of China’s deepening socialist rule of law and looks ahead to the implications of the domestic reforms for the international legal domain. With contributions from leading Chinese law specialists, it draws on specific illustrations from judicial reform, constitutional law, procedural law, anti-corruption, property law and urban development, socio-economic dispute resolution and Chinese macro-economics. The book questions how China’s domestic law reforms will impact international legal systems, and how international law can be used in managing key regional and bilateral relationships and in dispute resolution, such as in the South China Sea and international trade.

Assessing the state and direction of domestic law reform and including debates around the legal implications of some of China’s most pressing foreign policy challenges today, this volume will be of huge interest to students, scholars and practitioners with an interest in Asia law, Chinese law, international law, comparative law and law reform.

chapter |13 pages

Introduction

China's deepening socialist rule of law

part I|60 pages

China's socialist law reform agenda

chapter 1|13 pages

Judicial reform in China

An overview

chapter 3|14 pages

China's socialist rule of law

A critical appraisal of the relationship between the Communist Party and comprehensive law reform

chapter 4|16 pages

Reform directions for China's socialist market economy

A macroeconomic perspective

part II|74 pages

Major challenges for China's socialist rule of law

chapter 5|17 pages

The law and growth nexus in China

chapter 7|13 pages

Addressing corruption and the trial of Bo Xilai

Historical continuities, rule of law implications

chapter 8|12 pages

China's land use and urbanization

Challenges for comprehensive reform

chapter 9|15 pages

Individual rights protection or social management?

Equal employment laws and policies in China

part III|59 pages

China's socialist rule of law and international legal re-ordering

chapter 10|16 pages

Sovereignty vs rights

China's reasons for rejecting the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

chapter 12|18 pages

China's maritime interests and the law of the sea

Domesticating public international law

chapter 13|11 pages

Screening the ‘dragon's gift’?

National security review of China's foreign direct investment

chapter 14|14 pages

Conclusion

China's socialist rule of law reforms under Xi Jinping