Marking the eleventh anniversary of the July 2015 “709 Crackdown” on rights lawyers, Chinese Human Rights Defenders reported this week on a draft amendment to China’s Lawyers Law, published by the National People’s Congress on June 26, that would require lawyers to “uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China” and its “socialist rule …
Carol Jones. “Dissolving the People’: Capitalism, Law and Democracy in Hong Kong.” In Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism. Edited by Terence C. Halliday, Lucien Karpik, and Malcolm M. Feeley, pp. 109-150, Oxford, U.K: Hart Publishing, 2007. In this chapter, author Carol Jones challenges the conventional assumption that …
Sida Liu. “Birth of a Liberal Moment? Looking Through a One-Way Mirror at Lawyers’ Defence of Criminal Defendants in China.” In Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism. Edited by Terence C. Halliday, Lucien Karpik, and Malcolm M. Feeley, pp. 65-107, Oxford, U.K: Hart Publishing, 2007. This chapter analyzes …
John Ohnesorge, “Regulation of the Legal Profession in China,” China Law and Society Review, 2023. This article analyzes the historical evolution and regulation of the legal profession in China, from imperial times to the contemporary Xi Jinping era. It begins by examining the role of law and “proto lawyers” in imperial China, where legal intermediaries …
In April 2026, Amnesty International led an international call for China to guarantee that human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng would be released without restrictions upon completing a three-year prison sentence imposed after he was arrested en route to meet with European Union officials in Beijing in April 2023. Chinese authorities had charged Yu with “inciting …
On March 23, 2026, Chinese human rights lawyer Xie Yang was sentenced to five years in prison and fined approximately $14,500 USD by a court in Hunan Province on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” The conviction was based largely on his social media posts and interviews with foreign media. Xie Yang has a …
On March 23, 2026, the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court sentenced human rights lawyer Xie Yang, 54, to five years in prison on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” with 100,000 yuan (approximately $14,500) confiscated. Human Rights Watch documented that the verdict was based primarily on WeChat posts rather than any criminal conduct, that the …
Qin Ma. “Who are the Chinese Sǐkē (Diehard) Lawyers?—A Belated Clarification.” China Law and Society Review, vol. 10, no. 1 (2025): 1-50. This article explores the emergence and evolution of Sǐkē lawyers, a distinctive group of Chinese criminal defense lawyers who rose to prominence around 2009. Known for their zealous advocacy, emphasis on procedural rights, …
Eva Pils. “From Independent Lawyer Groups to Civic Opposition: The Case of China’s New Citizen Movement.” Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, vol. 19, no. 1 (2017): 110-152. This article explores how lawyers in authoritarian and backsliding regimes, specifically China, shift from legal professionals to civic activists in response to systemic institutional dysfunction. The article centers …
Hualing Fu. “The July 9th (709) Crackdown on Human Rights Lawyers: Legal Advocacy in an Authoritarian State.” Journal of Contemporary China, vol. 27, no. 112 (2018): 554-568. This article examines the 2015 crackdown on human rights lawyers in China, situating it within the broader political context of increasing authoritarian control. It analyzes the emergence and …