Engaging the Law in China

This interdisciplinary book of essays addresses critical issues arising from the emergence of legal process and legal institutions in contemporary China. The introduction by the editors and the individual chapters attempt, for the first time, to bring to bear on the study of Chinese law the law-and-society scholarship that has enriched Western legal studies.

"Engaging the Law in China heralds a rich set of findings in a promising field of study. It not only serves as an important benchmark for future research on the law in contemporary China but also for studies of Chinese state-society relations, past and present. This volume will make an important addition to any course considering these issues.", "Their Diamant, Lubman, OBrien insights into the roles played by regulators, mediators, arbitrators, police, prosecutors, judges, legislators, and other local government and Communist Party officials leave no doubt that, however limited, imperfect and distinctive Chinas legal processes may be, there is a legal system at work in the P.R.C. and it is ever more important to the polity, economy and society of 1.3 billion people.", "Engaging the Law in China successfully spans the gap between different approaches to Chinese legal studies, and I hope we will see more along this line in the future. This book is highly recommended", "[T]his book is a valuable contribution to research on contemporary China. It can and should be read by individuals with a specific interest in Chinese legal studies, as well as by those with a general interest in state-society relations in the Chinese context.", "This book truly stands alone as most of its chapters are not written by scholars with legal training but by social scientists for whom legal issues are at the core of the fieldwork."

Neil J. Diamant is Associate Professor of Asian Law and Culture at Dickinson College. Stanley B. Lubman is a specialist on Chinese law and advisor to The Asia Foundation, Lecturer at Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Bird in a Cage: Legal Reform in China after Mao (Stanford, 2000). Kevin O'Brien is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.