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Bird In A Cage: Chinese Law Reform After Twenty Years, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

I am grateful to the editors of this journal for inviting me to return to its pages to help mark the twentieth anniversary of its inaugural issue. History now tells us that publication of that first issue happened to coincide with the beginning of an extraordinary period in Chinese history that has seen extensive reforms transform the Chinese economy and Chinese society. These reforms, no less dramatic than the revolutionary transformations of the 1950s, have caused law to gain unprecedented importance in Chinese society. The Journal's anniversary provides an opportunity to review some of the major characteristics of Chinese legal …