Modern Chinese Rules of Order

Book excerpt: The book addresses the issues of China's modern social order, as influenced by an evolving economic order and especially legal order. Ongoing Chinese modernisation is prompted by both domestic needs and WTO commitments, which includes both economic and legal reforms. Emphasis is placed on legal reforms, one of the most important areas of much needed reforms. The directional development of China's legal order has national, interregional and international implications, which affect the growth and prosperity of both China and the world's economy. A problem is an evolving inter-relationship between social order, economic order, and legal order, which can be described as either complementary or paradoxical. However, a paradoxical inter-relationship between these sources of order is problematic, because it effectively renders needed legal reforms that are increasingly more difficult to implement. This book explores both the complementary and paradoxical inter-relationship between these sources of order, the author proposes a "novel" and "viable" alternative for transplanting a more Western constitutional design in China.