LAW, NORMS, AND LEGAL CHANGE: GLOBAL AND LOCAL IN CHINA AND JAPAN

The editors of the Michigan Journal of International Law have boldly brought together four articles and commentary that focus on different aspects of the same problem in China and Japan: the relationship between domestic legal change and foreign and/or "international" law and regulation, "soft" agreements, norms, or even cultural practices. Describing, Predicting, and Assessing Legal Reforms in China is another building block in his now voluminous oeuvre addressing the implementation of "rule of law" (contrasted with "rule of man" or "rule by law") in the People's Republic of China.1 A flurry of recent scholarly literature, front-page journalism, and more than a few pundit commentaries have addressed the extent to which the "rule of law" exists or even matters in transitional China.2 In other writings, Peerenboom has sought to address, in great detail, what "rule of law" in the PRC context might be, seeking most famously to distinguish between "thick" and "thin" theories of rule of law, and evaluate China's 25-year-old program of "legal construction" accordingly.