Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The evolution of rule of law in China: the role of law in historical context
- 3 Post-Mao reforms: competing conceptions of rule of law
- 4 Rule of law and its critics
- 5 Retreat of the Party and the state
- 6 The legislative system: battling chaos
- 7 The judiciary: in search of independence, authority, and competence
- 8 The legal profession: the quest for independence and professionalism
- 9 The administrative law regime: reining in an unruly bureaucracy
- 10 Rule of law and economic development
- 11 Rule of law, democracy, and human rights
- 12 Conclusion: the future of legal reform
- References
- Index
12 - Conclusion: the future of legal reform
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The evolution of rule of law in China: the role of law in historical context
- 3 Post-Mao reforms: competing conceptions of rule of law
- 4 Rule of law and its critics
- 5 Retreat of the Party and the state
- 6 The legislative system: battling chaos
- 7 The judiciary: in search of independence, authority, and competence
- 8 The legal profession: the quest for independence and professionalism
- 9 The administrative law regime: reining in an unruly bureaucracy
- 10 Rule of law and economic development
- 11 Rule of law, democracy, and human rights
- 12 Conclusion: the future of legal reform
- References
- Index
Summary
Twenty years ago few would have predicted that China's legal system would have developed to the degree that it has. Given the remarkable progress, skeptics who deny any fundamental change in the basic nature of China's legal system seem unduly pessimistic or cynical. On the other hand, liberals who think that China is on the way to establishing a liberal legal system of the kind found in Western democracies seem at once overly optimistic and underappreciative of differences in fundamental values that have led many Asian countries to resist the influence of liberalism in favor of their own brand of “Asian values” (differences which remain even after we discount the self-interested claims of leaders of authoritarian governments).
I have suggested a middle ground. While the footprint of the system's instrumental rule-by-law heritage remains visible, there is considerable evidence of a shift from a legal regime best characterized as rule by law toward a system that complies with the basic elements of a thin rule of law. Despite numerous obstacles, the legal regime will most likely continue to develop toward some form of rule of law that meets the requirements of a thin rule of law. Yet there is little evidence of a shift toward a rule of law understood to entail democracy and a liberal version of human rights that gives priority to civil and political rights. Accordingly, we need to take seriously alternative conceptions to a Liberal Democratic rule of law.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- China's Long March toward Rule of Law , pp. 558 - 598Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002