William P. Alford, ed. “Of Lawyers Lost And Found: Searching For Legal Professionalism In The People’s Republic Of China.” In Raising the Bar: The Emerging Legal Profession in East Asia 287. Eds. Geraldine Chin, Laura A. Cecere, Emma Johnson, pp. 287–310. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.
This article critically examines American assumptions about the development of the legal profession in China, arguing that idealized expectations of lawyers leading China toward rule of law and liberalism reflect more about U.S. beliefs in its own legal profession than China’s realities, and warns that such unexamined views risk misunderstanding both Chinese legal development and the limits of legal professionalism as a global model.