Law Commons^™

Legal Uncertainty In Foreign Investment In China: Causes And Management, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

My talk today will be based on an article – “Looking for Law in China” – that was published last year. In it, looked at Chinese law from the perspective of foreign investors that have had to cope with the uncertainty of a business environment in which legal institutions have been vague, incomplete and weak. I wrote, and today speak to you, from under two hats, that of a scholar and that of practicing lawyer, since for over thirty years I have combined those two careers. My observations here, then, are not just those from the academic ivory tower but …

Looking For Law In China, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

I have been looking for law in China for over forty years. When I started in 1963, only a handful of other Westerners had also embarked on what then seemed an exotic academic excursion. Since then, after U.S.-China relations were reestablished in 1972, many other Americans have had reason to join in the search. Now, the growing potency of China's economic strength and international reach has made efforts to understand China more important than ever, and law has become a necessary medium for use in such efforts.

This article offers insights into critical institutions and practices that mark the legal …

Looking For Law In China I: Themes And Issues In Western Studies Of Chinese Law, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

I have been studying Chinese law since the early 1960s – some have said that I began before there was any. The field has expanded so far beyond its narrow scope at that time that this overview will illustrate an old Chinese saying: "riding a horse and looking at flowers." I will first review the growth of this scholarly field, because it is necessary to understand that there are layers of scholarship that reflect first the paucity of formal legal institutions in Maoist China, then the appearance of first shoots of new or rebuilt institutions, and only recently the publication …

Looking For Law In China Iii: How Foreign Investors And Business Have Faced Legal Uncertainty In China, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

This last of the three talks I will have given here at Oxford looks at yet another aspect of what I have called "looking for law in China." Today I will look at Chinese law from the perspective of foreign investors that have had to cope with the uncertainty of a business environment in which legal institutions have been vague, incomplete and weak. I speak to you today from under two hats, that of a scholar and that of practicing lawyer, since for over thirty years I have combined those two careers. My observations here, then, are not just those …