Stanley Lubman writes for the Wall Street Journal China Real Time blog, December 18, 2013

Although relative freedom has become possible in the growing private sector of the economy, the Party’s version of the rule of law continues to control legal institutions. Meanwhile, public discontent has grown, fed by widening economic inequality, widespread corruption, official arbitrariness, land theft by local governments, looseness of Party discipline, the rise of privileged elites and a persistent lack of protection for private rights.

Stanley Lubman writes for Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2013

The initial communiqué that emanated from China’s major meeting of top Communist Party leaders on November 12th focused on economic reform and had little to say about the legal realm. That changed three days later when the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party released a 60-point “resolution” that announced two potentially significant legal reforms and provided more detail about additional reform targets.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, China Real Time Report, October 25, 2013

The Higher People’s Court in Shandong rejected an appeal on Friday by Bo Xilai, the former Communist Party boss in Chongqing who was convicted last month of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power. While that expected decision likely ends the legal drama surrounding Bo himself, many of those he attacked in Chongqing are still waiting for closure.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, China Real Time Report, October 15, 2013

Instead of mild hopes for return to religious belief, China would be better served with a strong rule of law to fill the moral vacuum. Unfortunately, with economic reform as the primary current task, major law reforms are not on the agenda.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, China Real Time Report, September 26, 2013

The sentencing of former Chongqing Communist Party boss Bo Xilai to life in prison on bribery charges over the weekend effectively brought to a close China’s biggest political crisis since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.  Bo’s exit is significant in that it leaves the neo-Maoist “New Left” without a star. But the trial was also noteworthy for the many questions it raised about the future of China’s much-scrutinized legal system.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2013

Beijing has launched a multi-pronged offensive against online criticism of current policies and institutions that includes a propaganda campaign, arrests, and a duplicative new legal rule that attempts to justify the response and deter future online critiques. This call to battle is not new, but its codification in legal dress is disturbing and represents a magnified threat to online discussion and dissent in China.

Stanley Lubman quoted in The Wall Street Journal, China Real Time Report, August 27, 2013

The headline-grabbing trial of Bo Xilai should not be allowed to divert concern from a forceful attack on the rule of law by the Party leadership that began this spring and became public earlier this month. As articulated in Document No. 9, a memo by senior leaders to Party members, the threat of Western democratic ideals to Communist ideology and to the principle of Party leadership is being taken more seriously than at any time in the recent past.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2013

Chinese citizen anger has been stoked to dangerous levels by reports of urban management officers, or chengguan, employing extreme violence against street vendors. Chengguan are auxiliary para-police organized and hired by city governments…. Despite years of bitter public complaints over the thug-like, and often violent, behavior of many chengguan, little has been done to rein them in.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, China Real Time Report, August 1, 2013

The judicial system, although it should be the appropriate institution for exposure and punishment of offenders, is itself infected by corruption that up to now has gone unmentioned…. The issue of corruption in the courts has not been raised in the current anti-corruption drive, probably because judicial reform of any kind would affect the basic roots of CPC power.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2013

Two prominent judges have recently issued sharp critiques of China’s judicial system, leading to optimism in some quarters that long-awaited legal reforms could finally be on their way…. Advocates of legal reform are right to feel encouraged. The high positions of both judges and the directness of their comments suggest that higher authorities approved their views. But, as is often the case, there are caveats.