This thesis is a case study of the death of Sun Zhigang in the Guangzhou Detention Center and the subsequent reform of China's Custody and Repatriation system. Regarding this case, the author is trying to provide a supplementary understanding of the possibility of legal progress in contemporary China, which is distinct from the state-centered approach, the law-and-society literature, and the work on central-local relations over the past two decades. Rather, it is a combination of the three. In the presented case, the author finds that the central state, local bureaucracies, and social forces all play an active role with regard to the reform of the Custody and Repatriation system because of their distinct interests. Accordingly, the legal development from the abolishment of the system is...[ Read more ]

This thesis is a case study of the death of Sun Zhigang in the Guangzhou Detention Center and the subsequent reform of China's Custody and Repatriation system. Regarding this case, the author is trying to provide a supplementary understanding of the possibility of legal progress in contemporary China, which is distinct from the state-centered approach, the law-and-society literature, and the work on central-local relations over the past two decades. Rather, it is a combination of the three. In the presented case, the author finds that the central state, local bureaucracies, and social forces all play an active role with regard to the reform of the Custody and Repatriation system because of their distinct interests. Accordingly, the legal development from the abolishment of the system is a mix result of the reforms of from above (the central state), from middle (local bureaucracies), and from below (social forces). It is a "threefold legal campaign". The threefold legal campaign is not representative nowadays but normatively will be meaningful for future legal reforms in the PRC.