ABSTRACT
In 1985, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and the State Council published the Five-year Plan for Popularizing Common Legal Knowledge Among All Citizens. Since then, large-scale projects in legal education and popularization have been carried out throughout China, playing an important role in promoting the rule of law. These projects were greatly strengthened by institutionalized strategies, such as the program to dispatch courts to “hold sessions in peasants’ homes” and the broadcasting of the TV show, Law Today. Through these and other moves, even in the most remote areas, people have gradually gained varying degrees of legal consciousness. However, “access to justice” has become an intractable issue as legal consciousness has risen. Impoverished peasants and migrant workers are intimidated by the high cost of seeking redress through juridical channels.
