Rule of Law Commons^™

Chinese Legal Development Assistance: Which Rule Of Law? Whose Pragmatism?, Samuli Seppanen

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

China is both a recipient and a donor of foreign development aid. As a donor state, China insists that it does not interfere in the internal affairs of foreign states, and it criticizes Western human rights conditionality and rule of law advocacy in development cooperation. Due to this non-interventionist posture, Chinese foreign development aid is commonly seen to exclude politically sensitive assistance for governance institutions and the legal sector in particular. This article demonstrates that Chinese foreign development aid does, in fact, include a legal component. Chinese legal development assistance comprises advice on law reform in developing countries; capacity-building programs …