Bo Xilai’s Decline and the Future of Chinese Legal Reform

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Bo Xilai’s Decline and the Future of Chinese Legal Reform

［China’s Xinhua News announced Bo Xilai’s removal from the Party posts.］

Many Chinese still remember how Bo Xilai, then the party secretary of Chongqing City, charged a criminal defense lawyer Li Zhuang for perjury and coerced him to plead guilty without due process of law, which the liberal jurists in China treasured; when Bo became a strong candidate for the post of the Politburo standing committee to be in charge of the legal departments, the liberal jurists were more worried; after Bo further announced the intention to revive the Maoist legacy in law, the liberal jurists almost felt hopeless: if that happened in China there would be no future for the rule of law, which they had fought for many decades.

Bo’s campaign against official corruption and organized crime in Chongqing City confirmed many of the worries, since torture and coercion were used extensively to produce confessions, according to Professor Tong Zhiwei’s report.

In a lengthy report on the so-called anti-crime campaign in Chongqing, Tong Zhiwei, a law professor at Shanghai’s East China University, makes a detailed case that the campaign went well beyond Chinese law. Secret arrests and forced confessions were routine, Tong says.

from a CNN report

The liberal jurists in China should feel at ease now, since just a few hours ago the Chinese Central Government announced that the ousted former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai had been stripped of his party positions. With Bo’s decline, the worries about the revival of Maoist-style law may soon disappear. As for the future of legal reform in China, however, it remains to be seen how Bo’s story will continue to unfold and to influence the soon-to-take-place 18th Chinese Communist Party Congress.

An interesting detail in this story is that Bo’s wife Gu Kailai is now charged with the murder of a British businessman Neil Heywood for “economic disputes.” The term “economic disputes” hints Bo’s own involvement in corruption, and if proven Bo’s public image as a fighter against official corruption would be completely destroyed. Right now, perhaps Bo is secretly hoping that on his wife’s case the police would not conduct a Maoist-style investigation that he himself revived.

Further reading:

Reuters: China ejects Bo from elite ranks, wife suspected of murder

［转帖］面试的诀窍

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［这篇文章浅显质朴，讲了不少面试的常识，对正在找工作的朋友来说有价值，故转帖于此。］

by 胡果威

在职场上混了几十年，从下乡知青、工人、中学教师、大学助教、好莱坞白领、法律助理到上市公司的总裁和法律事务所的合伙人，当年被别人面试，现在面试别人，终于懂得了被面试者和面试者双方的心理。

“你只有一次机会给别人留下第一印象（You only have one chance to make a first impression)”，这句话精辟地概括了一切。
Continue reading →

Thomas Thompson: Glowing Pork, Exploding Watermelons (from Foreign Affairs)

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Why China cannot keep its food safe
From Foreign Affairs! By Thomas Thompson
In July 2008, 16 children in the Chinese province of Gansu fell ill, suffering from low urine production. Their numbers multiplied, and by November hundreds of thousands of young Chinese throughout the country were experiencing varying degrees of kidney failure. Government inspections soon revealed that several prominent dairy companies and their suppliers were to blame. In an attempt to make it appear as if their products contained more protein, these companies had added melamine-formaldehyde resin, an inexpensive nitrogen-rich chemical used in plastic manufacturing, to baby formula and other types of milk. Continue reading →

What’s the global law school? Who’s a global Lawyer?

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Panel Discussion during Global Legal Education Forum

(March 24th, 2012, Harvard Law School )

全球法学教育论坛专题研讨 （2012年3月24日，哈佛法学院）

Today, legal educators around the world recognize that law schools need to go global. Legal academics, practitioners and activists working “locally” are increasingly drawing upon comparative law insights and understandings of global governance (economic, trade, security, and migration). Crucial question needs to be raised to legal educators and practitioners. What makes a law school a “global law school?” Are “global law schools” actually new phenomena, as is often stated, or do they reflect merely a new register in a long history of globalizations of legal thought and legal consciousness? What kind of lawyers should “global law schools” train for an increasingly globalizing world?

Chair: Rui Guo, S.J.D. Candidate, Harvard Law School

（主持人：郭锐，哈佛法学院博士候选人）

  • Antony Anghie (SJD ‘95), Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney School of Law, University of Utah
  • Daniel Jutras (LLM ’85), Dean, McGill University, Faculty of Law
  • Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Professor of Law, University of Nairobi & Strathmore University
  • Carole Silver, Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law

林达：独特的高华

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林达：独特的高华

圣诞后，正在旅途中。收到景明来信，说高华走了。

她同时向几个朋友转达了高华最后的问候，她说，“高华情况恶化后，口很干，电话来了，都由太太代答。这天他接过电话，问我，圣诞节到哪里去玩？然后让我问候香港的朋友，慢慢将一个个名字念出来。”

景明说：他以前从来没有这样过，她很懊悔地说：“我是那么笨，完全没有想到他是道别，失去最后的机会告诉他：高华，我们爱你。”我想，她不是没有料到，是内心拒绝相信，高华病后五年里，景明每隔两三天会打电话去问候，不论对面出现什么情况，她都会以最轻松得体幽默的方式化解和安慰。假如偶有几天没接到景明电话，高华反而会担心景明出什么事了。如高华夫人说，景明是上帝给我们送来的天使。在高华面前，她是最无须懊悔的一个。 Continue reading →

Chinese NGO Registration Policy Change

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A recent interview of the Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo reveals an encouraging signal from the Chinese government that the non-profit organizations (NGO) registration will be significantly easier in the future.

Current national regulations stipulate that NGOs must find government supervisory entities before they register with civil affairs departments. Most government agencies were reluctant to take responsibility for supervising NGOs, and as a result some NGOs have chosen to register as business enterprises. Such registration brought difficulties and legal risks. Continue reading →

Mark Roe: How Capitalist is America?

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How Capitalist is America?

2011-06-20

How Capitalist is America?

CAMBRIDGE – If capitalism’s border is with socialism, we know why the world properly sees the United States as strongly capitalist. State ownership is low, and is viewed as aberrational when it occurs (such as the government takeovers of General Motors and Chrysler in recent years, from which officials are rushing to exit). The government intervenes in the economy less than in most advanced nations, and major social programs like universal health care are not as deeply embedded in the US as elsewhere.

But these are not the only dimensions to consider in judging how capitalist the US really is. Consider the extent to which capital – that is, shareholders – rules in large businesses: if a conflict arises between capital’s goals and those of managers, who wins? Continue reading →