Abstract
Dispute resolution, like all other aspects of Chinese society, is being reshaped by extensive reforms that began in 1979. The changes do not only concern Chinese, who are now sometimes able to assert rights that they have never had before, but foreigners as well. As China’s influence in the international community grows, other nations must also be concerned about the capacity of Chinese legal institutions to perform their declared functions. Notably, for example, if China accedes to the World Trade Organization the Chinese government will be obligated to make China a more rule-based society than it has ever been. Larger issues are involved, too, especially China’s ability to move toward the rule of law that its leaders have proclaimed as a goal. In view of these concerns, Western analysis of the functions and operation of the Chinese courts and related institutions should be deepened. Studying Chinese law today requires that we look beyond the rapid changes that have aroused world-wide attention since they began. It is necessary to consider both the starting point of legal reform and the obstacles to future progress. I have therefore looked back at Chinese institutions for dispute resolution when I first wrote about them in “Mao and Mediation,”‘ published thirty years ago when studies of Chinese law in the United States were still in an early stage. That attempt to understand and interpret China’s legal institutions was prompted by my concern about American ignorance of China that flowed from the Sino-American estrangement of the time. Now, three decades later, China’s extraordinary transformations and entry into the community of nations make it even more necessary to use law as a prism through which to view China.