New article by William Partlett: The Death of Socialist Law?
William Partlett of Melbourne Law School and Eric C. Ip of The Chinese University of Hong Kong have just released a paper for the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics (JILP).
This Article argues that the socialist legal system did not die in the late 1980s. Instead, the statist parts of the socialist legal system — drawn from Leninist ideology and the Russian legal tradition — have strongly influenced Chinese public law since the early 1980s. In fact, the Russo-Leninist elements of the socialist legal system are growing in power because of the renewed emphasis on socialist ideology in Xi Jinping's China. By understanding the Russo-Leninist roots of the formal Chinese legal system and its contemporary legacy, this Article will seek to better understand the possibilities of reforming China's distinctive formal legal institutions as well as its public law system.