Pessimism over Legal Reforms in China

A broad look at recent high profile legal issues (China Economic Review) that face/will be brought before China's judiciary. The biggest problem according to Jerome Cohen? Judges answer to the Communist Party.

Beyond the more obvious reasons why this is problematic as it relates to commercial disputes, there is a recognition in China that "reform is required to ease increasing public dissatisfaction with the government, which is seen as a threat to social stability." Which in turn is a threat to the Party though problematically, the Party has seemingly few intentions to relinquish power. It will be interesting/scary to watch how these two tensions play out over the next few years particularly as the economic situation gets worse and in turn resulting a more difficult to manage populace.