Available from April 2013, despatch 3-4 weeks. (Cambridge University Press)
ISBN: 9781107020023. Hard Cover, 312 pages.
Environmental Litigation in China A Study in Political Ambivalence This is a book about the improbable: seeking legal relief for pollution in contemporary China. In a country known for tight political control and ineffectual courts, Environmental Litigation in China unravels how everyday justice works: how judges make decisions, why lawyers take cases, and how international influence matters. It is a readable account of how the leadership's mixed signals and political ambivalence play out on the ground – propelling some, such as the village doctor who fought a chemical plant for more than a decade, even as others back away from risk. Yet this remarkable book shows that even in a country where expectations would be that law wouldn't much matter, environmental litigation provides a sliver of space for legal professionals to explore new roles and, in so doing, probe the boundary of what is politically possible.
Contents
1. Post-Mao: economic growth, environmental protection, and the law;
2. From dispute to decision;
3. Frontiers of environmental law;
4. Political ambivalence: the state;
5. On the front lines: the judges;
6. Heroes or troublemakers? The lawyers;
7. Soft support: the international NGOs;
8. Thinking about outcomes.
