The Limits of the Rule of Law in China

In The Limits of the Rule of Law in China, fourteen authors from different academic disciplines reflect on questions that have troubled Chinese and Western scholars of jurisprudence since classical times. Using data from the early 19th century through the contemporary period, they analyze how tension between formal laws and discretionary judgment is discussed and manifested in the Chinese context.

The contributions cover a wide range of topics, from interpreting the rationale for and legacy of Qing practices of collective punishment, confession at trial, and bureaucratic supervision to assessing the political and cultural forces that continue to limit the authority of formal legal institutions in the People’s Republic of China.

R. Kent Guy is professor of history emeritus at the University of Washington. He is the author of Qing Governors and Their Provinces: The Evolution of Territorial Administration in China, 1644-1796 (University of Washington Press, 2010) and The Emperor's Four Treasures: Scholars and the State in the Late Qianlong Period (Harvard Asia Center, 1987); and coeditor of Limits of the Rule of Law in China (University of Washington Press, 1999).

Karen Turner is professor and department chair of history at Holy Cross College. James V. Feinerman is James M. Morita Professor of Asian Legal Studies at Georgetown University. R. Kent Guy is professor emeritus of history at the University of Washington. Other contributors are William P. Alford, Alison W. Conner, Jack L. Dull, Tahirih V. Lee, Jonathan K. Ocko, Pitman B. Potter, Claudia Ross, Lester Ross, Yuanyuan Shen, Joanna Waley-Cohen, and Margaret Y. K. Woo.

"A skillful, multidisciplinary collection by China specialists, this volume treats fazhi (the rule of law) as it relates conceptually and practically to historical and contemporary China."