Rule of Law as a Watermark: China's Legal and Judicial Challenges

Examines the major turning points in Chinese legal theory and legal practices since the 1990s, when China became a global economic and political actor, and covers some of the major accomplishments of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and after China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. Under Deng Xiaoping, law reforms legitimized the process of economic change, and the legal framework affected business growth, while China’s wealth helped build a modern court system. Generally, access to justice for ordinary citizens is better today than ever before in Chinese history, though the lack of guarantee to a fair trial is a recurring concern. Reform of China’s legal and judicialsystems relies on a balance among the country’s ruling party and variouslegal groups with diverging opinions and standards. Among the remaining challenges is the legal guarantee of ownership rights, which suffers because the current system is complex and the judicial system does not have clear authority to regulate