Scholars of law, political science, and history examine the changing role of law in China during the economic changes of the past years. The topics include suing the local state in rural China, Chinas pension reform and its discontents, the politics of rights and identity among veterans in the 1950s, shifting legal and administrative goalposts, and changing police analyses of social unrest. The nine essays were presented at September 2002 conference in Berkeley. Diamant is Associate Professor of Asian law and Culture at Dickinson College. The other editors are Stanley B. Lubman (Chinese law, The Asia Foundation) and Kevin J. OBrien (political science, University of California, Berkeley). Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) This book explores legal mobilization, culture, and institutions in contemporary China from a perspective informed by ‘law and society’ scholarship. This interdisciplinary book of essays addresses critical issues arising from the emergence of legal institutions in contemporary China. One section of the book focuses on the legal process: how law is mobilized by ordinary people to redress injustice, the role of legal culture, the extent to which citizens can sue state officials, and how disputes involving workers and veterans are settled. A second set of papers explores specific legal institutions, such as the security apparatus, “labor reeducation” camps, and rules that punish infringement of intellectual property rights. Almost all the contributors are social scientists who have recently engaged in field research in 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 in recent years.
