ABSTRACT
The economic reforms that began in 1979 to transform China have caused law to become more important than it has been at any time in Chinese history: law has been incorporated into the governance of the Chinese Party-state, a legal framework for a marketizing economy has been constructed by an astounding outpouring of legislation, and the courts have been rebuilt.1 The bar has been revived,2 as has legal education. This chapter summarizes the state of China’s courts after twenty years of reform efforts, and speculates on the prospects for further necessary reforms of the judicial system. It emphasizes some forces that influence law reform and legal institutions in China today, and suggests, now that China has acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO) it will have difficulty in meeting the standards that membership in that body will impose on its legal institutions.
