Environmental Litigation in China, Revisited: A Study in Political Ambivalence

This talk will revisit “Environmental Litigation in China: A Study in Political Ambivalence” (Cambridge University Press 2013).  The book was originally envisioned as a window into how everyday justice works in China: how judges make decisions, why lawyers take cases, and how international influence matters. In particular, it offered an account of how the Chinese leadership’s mixed signals and political ambivalence toward law and environmental protection played out on the ground—propelling some, such as the village doctor who fought a chemical plant for more than a decade, even as others chose to back away from risk. Now, ten years after publication, this talk offers an opportunity to reflect on which insights have proved enduring and what has changed under General Secretary Xi Jinping.

Rachel E. Stern is professor of law and political science in the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program at Berkeley Law, where she also currently holds the Pamela P. Fong and Family Distinguished Chair in China Studies. Her research has focused on law in Mainland China, especially the relationship between legal institution building, political space and professionalization. Stern is the author of “Environmental Litigation in China: A Study in Political Ambivalence,” as well as numerous articles on legal mobilization and lawyers in contemporary China.

She is currently part of a collaborative effort to analyze the 60+ million Chinese judicial decisions placed online following a 2014 policy change and is also working on a comparative project on the politics of judicial transparency. Stern was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard University Society of Fellows, and currently serves as series editor for the Law and Society series at Cambridge University Press.