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.

This book provides law-based governance which is one of the basic policies that underpins our endeavors to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Law is the key to governing the country,and the rule of law is an important support for the national governance system and governance capacity. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC,China has implemented the four-pronged comprehensive strategy and created an unprecedented new situation for law-based governance. Further progress has been made in ensuring China’s legislation is sound,law enforcement is strict, the administration of justice is impartial,and the law is observed by everyone. China’s efforts to build a country, government,and society based on the rule of law have been mutually reinforcing; the system of distinctively Chinese socialist rule of law has been steadily improved; public awareness of the rule of law has risen markedly. In recent years, China has adhered to the correct handling of the relationship between deepening reform and law-based governance,ensuring that major reforms are justified by law and providing solid guarantees of the rule of law for reform and opening-up. China has adhered to combine law-based governance of the country and rule-based governance over the party and exercised law-based governance at every point in the process and over every dimension of full and rigorous governance over the party and has made remarkable achievements in the construction of a clean and honest government and the struggle against corruption.

This book comprehensively introduces the development of rule of law and law-based governance in China. Through theoretical interpretation, background analysis and empirical analysis of several key issues, this book answers why and how China promotes its rule of law and how the country identifies major challenges of promoting rule of law. It also looks at how China solves its problems in the process of practicing socialist rule of law.

In the Xi Jinping era, it has become clear that the rule of law, as understood in the West, will not appear in China soon. But was this ever a likely option? This book argues China's legal system needs to be studied from an internal perspective, to take into account the characteristic architecture of China's Party-state. To do so, it addresses two key elements: ideology and organisation. Part One of the book discusses ideology and the law, exploring how the Chinese Communist Party conceives of the nature of law and its position within its broader range of policy tools. Part Two, on organisation and the law, reviews how these ideological principles manifest themselves in the application of law, as well as the reform of the Party-state. As such, it highlights how the Party's plans and approaches run counter to mainstream theoretical expectations, and advocates a greater attention to the inherent logic of the system itself.

Zusammenfassung: In its first "Plan on Building the Rule of Law in China (2020-2025)", the leadership in Beijing has set out its vision for a coherent and genuinely Chinese legal system. The focus here is on the term "socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics". It should "basically take shape" by 2035. Marxist-Leninist legal concepts remain fundamental. The aim is to use the law as a political instrument to make the state more efficient and to reduce the arbitrariness of how the law is applied for the majority of the population, among other things, with the help of advanced technology. In some areas, for example on procedural issues, Beijing continues to draw inspiration from the West in establishing its Chinese "rule of law". However, the party-state leadership rejects an independent judiciary and the principle of separation of powers as "erroneous western thought". Beijing is explicitly interested in propagating China's conception of law and legal practice internationally, establishing new legal standards and enforcing its interests through the law. Berlin and Brussels should, therefore, pay special attention to the Chinese leadership's concept of the law. In-depth knowledge on this topic will be imperative in order to grasp the strategic implications of China's legal policy, to better understand the logic of their actions and respond appropriately

China’s legal system has drawn ever more attention from the international community. It has been developing at a very significant pace since China carried out economic reform and instituted an “open door” policy in 1978.China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) has had a tremendous impact on the development and reform of China’s legal system. This book focuses on the recent developments of China’s legal system as well as its reform in the context of globalization. It covers various hot and timely topics, including constitutional changes, the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and the law, legislation, law-based administration, laws for anti-corruption campaigns, judicial reform, legal education and China’s compliance with international law. The book is suitable for lawyers, whether practicing or academic, officials in national governments and international organizations and students and scholars in academia, who are interested in China, Chinese law, comparative and international law.