As a field of scholarship, law and governance in China has developed rapidly during the past decade, simultaneously with the Chinese legal system itself. Presently, this system is at a crossroads, as it faces the difficult task of accommodating new complexities in China’s development, including those resulting from industrial transformation, urbanisation and social change. At the 4th Plenum of 2014, an ambitious yet politically charged agenda of legal development was proposed, which aims to combine regime stability with social order and continued - albeit less rapid - economic development. This research project intends to explore how this agenda and the evolving context in which it will be implemented, reflect and attempt to direct shifts in state-society relations, reshape the legal environment in which Chinese citizens live their lives, and respond to the challenges China currently faces.

• china
• law and governance
• state-society relations