"Preface" [2014] ELECD 553; in Trevaskes, Susan; Nesossi, Elisa; Sapio, Flora; Biddulph, Sarah (eds), "The Politics of Law and Stability in China" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014) xi

Book Title: The Politics of Law and Stability in China

Editor(s): Trevaskes, Susan; Nesossi, Elisa; Sapio, Flora; Biddulph, Sarah

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783473861

Section Title: Preface

Number of pages: 2

Extract:

Preface*
A functioning system of law whose independence from the state is
upheld and respected by both the state and citizens is widely recognized
as intrinsic to a strong and stable nation. Law and stability are seen to be
not simply coexistent but interdependent; stability is an outcome of a
system of law working effectively in a relatively stable society. In
contemporary China, however, this law­stability nexus is complicated by
Communist Party politics and the political priorities of state develop-
ment. As we will see throughout this book, in the era of Harmonious
Society and Stability Maintenance, Party-state actions have given China's
legal institutions an activist role in the pursuit of national stability, a role
that stretches the institutions' legal actors into responsibilities that
entangle their interests in legal and political outcomes.
This book is about judicial and governmental activism around the issue
of managing social instability in China today. The studies in this volume
examine the relationship between law and the political imperatives of
state development and observe how the stability imperative shapes this
interaction. The imposed activist disposition has enabled the Party-state
to legitimize important changes in the practices and policies of courts,
governments and security organs on the basis of a political narrative
about the imperative of social stability. The Party-state in China has
deployed this political narrative, expressed particularly through Harmoni-
ous Society and Stability Maintenance discourse, to reframe and refor-
mulate justice and security practices to accommodate its own place
...