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The Rule of Law in China and Comparative Perspectives

About the Book Series

There is no doctrine more effective than the rule of law in portraying the complex transformation of Chinese society from the rule of men towards the rule of law - a process inaugurated in post-Mao China which is continuing to advance legal reforms to the present day. In other parts of the world, striving for the rule of law is also evident: countries in transition face a similar mission, while the developed democratic countries are forced to tackle new challenges in retaining the high benchmark of the rule of law that has been established.

Research on the legal system in China and in comparison with other countries in the framework of the rule of law covers broad topics of public and private law, substantive law and procedural law, citizens’ rights and law enforcement by courts. Based on this broad understanding of the rule of law, the series presents international scholarly work on modern Chinese law including: comparative perspectives, interdisciplinary, and empirical studies.

13 Series Titles


Dispute Settlement and the Belt and Road Initiative Towards a Rules-based Approach

Dispute Settlement and the Belt and Road Initiative: Towards a Rules-based Approach

1st Edition

Forthcoming

By Jamieson M. Kirkwood
December 08, 2025

This book presents a response to the numerous calls for instituting a rules-based approach in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) dispute resolution. The theoretical framework developed here builds a case that the BRI is a demonstration of China’s growing use of “soft power” and that BRI dispute ...

National Security in International and Domestic Investment Law Dynamics in China and Europe

National Security in International and Domestic Investment Law: Dynamics in China and Europe

1st Edition

Edited By Yuwen Li, Feng Lin, Cheng Bian
June 27, 2025

This book offers a dynamic introduction to the new developments on national security review of foreign direct investment (FDI) from the perspectives of both domestic law and international investment law. COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have intensified FDI screening to an unprecedented...

International Investment and Dispute Settlement Understanding the China–European Union Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

International Investment and Dispute Settlement: Understanding the China–European Union Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

1st Edition

By Chunlei Zhao
January 29, 2024

This book analyzes the dispute settlement mechanisms under the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), including the already established mechanisms for general state-to-state dispute settlement and the Mechanism to Address Differences for investment and sustainable development issues....

Effective Environmental Regulation in China Reflections on the Experience of European Union Legislation on Environmental Permits

Effective Environmental Regulation in China: Reflections on the Experience of European Union Legislation on Environmental Permits

1st Edition

By Federico Pasini
January 09, 2023

Though recently improved, Chinese legislation on environmental permits is still weak and urgent measures are needed to help the country in moving towards an effective permitting system. This book examines this legislation gap and presents a contribution to solving China’s pollution problems. By ...

Environmental Protection, China and International Trade Greening the WTO Ban on Chinese Export Duties

Environmental Protection, China and International Trade: Greening the WTO Ban on Chinese Export Duties

1st Edition

By Fengan Jiang
January 09, 2023

This book argues for a balanced approach to ‘greening’ the World Trade Organization (WTO) ban on China’s export duties without opening the floodgates to protectionism. As a result of the China—Raw Materials and China—Rare Earths decisions, China is largely prohibited from using export duties to ...

The Making of Chinese Criminal Law The Preventive Shift in the Context of the Eighth Amendment

The Making of Chinese Criminal Law: The Preventive Shift in the Context of the Eighth Amendment

1st Edition

By Ying Ji
September 26, 2022

By examining the reasons behind the preventive criminalization of Chinese criminal law, this book argues that the shift of criminal law generates popular expectations of legislative participation, and meets punitive demands of the public, but the expansion of criminal law lacks effective ...

Law and Social Solidarity in Contemporary China A Durkheimian Analysis

Law and Social Solidarity in Contemporary China: A Durkheimian Analysis

1st Edition

By Han Peng
August 01, 2022

This book adopts Durkheim’s legal perspective to treat law as a symbol of social solidarities to examine Chinese society. The work analyzes changes in the nature of social solidarity from observing changes in laws, thus drawing together western socio-legal theory and distinctive Chinese conditions...

China, the EU and International Investment Law Reforming Investor-State Dispute Settlement

China, the EU and International Investment Law: Reforming Investor-State Dispute Settlement

1st Edition

Edited By Yuwen Li, Tong Qi, Cheng Bian
October 29, 2019

This book provides an original and critical analysis of the most contentious subjects being negotiated in the China–EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI). It focuses on the pathway of reforming investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) from both Chinese and European perspectives in the...

Law and Politics of the Taiwan Sunflower and Hong Kong Umbrella Movements

Law and Politics of the Taiwan Sunflower and Hong Kong Umbrella Movements

1st Edition

Edited By Brian Jones
March 20, 2019

Rarely do acts of civil disobedience come in such grand fashion as Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement. The two protests came in regions and jurisdictions that many have underestimated as regards furthering notions of political speech, democratisation, and testing the ...

Conservation and Recreation in Protected Areas A Comparative Legal Analysis of Environmental Conflict Resolution in the United States and China

Conservation and Recreation in Protected Areas: A Comparative Legal Analysis of Environmental Conflict Resolution in the United States and China

1st Edition

By Yun Ma
May 11, 2018

This book provides a comprehensive and up to date comparative study of the management and resolution of conflicts between conservation and recreation in protected areas in the US and China. Competing claims on the use of nature, increasing regulation of land use and recreational activities, and ...

Legal Reforms and Deprivation of Liberty in Contemporary China

Legal Reforms and Deprivation of Liberty in Contemporary China

1st Edition

Edited By Elisa Nesossi, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio, Susan Trevaskes
May 11, 2018

The volume presents an extensive investigation into the process of reforms of detention powers in today’s China and offers an in-depth analysis of the debates surrounding the reformist attempts. The chapters in this collection demonstrate that legislative and institutional reforms in this area ...

Administrative Litigation Systems in Greater China and Europe

Administrative Litigation Systems in Greater China and Europe

1st Edition

By Yuwen Li
January 09, 2017

Administrative litigation systems are a rapidly developing legal field in many countries. This book provides a comparative study of the administrative litigation systems in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao, as well as a number of selected European countries that covers both states with an ...

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