Legal Reform in China: Problems and Prospects

A joint conference on April 18 hosted by the Carnegie Endowment and the Asia Foundation featured leading experts from China and the United States to discuss the efforts that China has undertaken to reform its judicial and administrative systems.  

IMGXYZ384IMGZYX The event's keynote address was given by the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Justice O'Connor discussed her visits to China and her observations of Chinese legal reform efforts. 

IMGXYZ383IMGZYX In addition, the Honorable Zhou Wenzhong, the newly appointed Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the United States, delivered remarks on Sino-American relations and legal reform in China.

Below is the conference agenda. Summaries of the first two panels of the conference are available by clicking on the right; Ambassador Zhou's remarks, Justice O'Connor's keynote address, and portions of the afternoon discussion were all off-the-record. Additional conference materials in PDF, including full remarks and publications of select speakers, are available below.  An article in the Legal Daily covered the conference and is available by clicking here.

Welcome and Opening Remarks

• Minxin Pei, Senior Associate and Director of the China Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Nancy Yuan, Vice President and Director of the Washington Office, The Asia Foundation

Panel I - Conducting Administration in accordance with Law (yifa xingzheng): Efforts to Regulate Governments and Challenges Ahead

• Stanley Lubman, Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley School of Law (moderator and commentator) (publications: "Law of the Jungle" and "The Dragon as Demon") (full remarks) 
• Frank Upham, Wilf Family Professor of Property Law, New York University School of Law
• Wang Xixin, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Law, Peking University Law School
• Veron Hung, Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (full remarks) (publication: "Judicial Reform in Shanghai")

Panel II - Administering Justice for People (sifa weimin): China's Judicial Reform Efforts and their Limitations

• James Feinerman, James M. Morita Professor of Asian Legal Studies, Georgetown University Law Center (moderator)
• Wang Chenguang, Dean and Professor of Law, Tsinghua University School of Law
• Cai Dingjian, Professor of Law, China University of Political Science and Law School of Law (full remarks in Chinese)
• The Honorable Timothy Gailey, First Justice, Chelsea District Court (full remarks)
• He Weifang, Professor of Law, Peking University Law School (full remarks) (publications: "To Change or Not to Change the Courts' Name" in Chinese; accompanying interview in Chinese and news article in Chinese)

Remarks on U.S.-China Relations and Legal Reform in China

• The Honorable Zhou Wenzhong, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the United States of America*

Legal Reform in China: American Perspectives

• The Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States* (keynote speaker)
• Jessica Mathews, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (moderator)
• Jerome Cohen, Professor of Law, New York University School of Law* (publications: "The Plight of China's Criminal Defense Lawyers" and "Time to Fix China's Arbitration")
• Randy Edwards, Walter Gellhorn Professor of Law, Emeritus, Columbia Law School*
• Stanley Lubman, Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley School of Law (full remarks)

* these remarks were off the record.