The Chinese Legal System
How law operates in a one-party state, the tension between building a functional legal system and maintaining Party supremacy, and what rule of law means in the Chinese context.
Rule by Law, Not Rule of Law
China has built a vast legal infrastructure since the reform era began in 1978. Hundreds of laws and regulations govern commercial activity, property rights, criminal justice, and administrative procedure. Over 400,000 lawyers practice in China. The court system processes millions of cases per year. For commercial disputes, the system functions reasonably well, providing the predictability businesses need.
However, Western scholars distinguish between 'rule of law,' where law constrains government power, and 'rule by law,' where the government uses law as a tool of governance without being bound by it. China's system is the latter. The CCP sits above the legal system, not within it. Party committees in courts influence the handling of sensitive cases. Political-legal committees at every level of government direct law enforcement priorities. The Party explicitly rejects judicial independence as a Western concept and instead promotes 'socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.'