A Trojan Horse behind Chinese Walls? Problems and Prospects of U.S.-Sponsored "Rule of Law" Reform Projects in the People's Republic of China

Abstract

A TROJAN HORSE BEHIND CHINESE WALLS? PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF U.S.-SPONSORED 'RULE OF LAW' REFORM PROJECTS IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Matthew C. Stephenson* INTRODUCTION Consider the following scenario. Members of the American governmental, academic, and nonprofit communities notice that, in an important region of the developing world, legal institutions and substantive law appear inadequate. Laws seem opaque, un- predictable, and unfair. Legal institutions are inefficient, inacces- sible to ordinary people, and subject to corruption and political interference. These legal deficiencies, it is believed, threaten sus- tained and equitable economic development, the protection of individual rights, and the possibility for greater democratic politi- cal reform. Thus, it seems logical to these American observers that the United States, with its sophisticated laws and legal insti- tutions, and its years of experience developing a legal system, could provide useful expertise and assistance in promoting legal reform and development in this region. The region in question is Latin America (and to a lesser ex- tent Africa and Southeast Asia), and the time is the mid-1960s. Efforts to provide U.S. legal assistance in these countries - ef- forts which came to be known collectively as the Law and Devel- opment Movement - began with great optimism. 1 Yet the movement came to a virtual halt only a decade later, after a crisis of disillusionment not only with the specific projects, but with the whole vision of legal development which sustained them. * Ph.D. Candidate, Harvard University Department of Government. Special thanks to William Alford, Richard Messick, Katharina Pistor, Matthew Price, Frederick Schauer, and my interviewees for their comments on and contribu- tions to this article. All errors are, of course, entirely my own. 1. For the classic statement of the project's vision and spirit, see William 0. Douglas, Lawyers of the Peace Corps, 48 A.B.A.J. 909-913 (1962).