Law and the Party in China

In the Xi Jinping era it has become clear that the rule of law as understood in the West will not appear in China soon. But was this ever a likely option? This book argues China''s legal system needs to be studied from an internal perspective to take into account the characteristic architecture of China''s Party-state. To do so it addresses two key elements: ideology and organisation. Part One of the book discusses ideology and the law exploring how the Chinese Communist Party conceives of the nature of law and its position within its broader range of policy tools. Part Two on organisation and the law reviews how these ideological principles manifest themselves in the application of law as well as the reform of the Party-state. As such it highlights how the Party''s plans and approaches run counter to mainstream theoretical expectations and advocates a greater attention to the inherent logic of the system itself.