This volume of The China Legal Development Yearbook is the third in a series of annual reports written by leading Chinese law and legal policy scholars and judges to appear in English translation. It is edited by scholars at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This 2008 yearbook reviews major legal developments in 2007, including law reform priorities, major legal policy debates and newly enacted legislation. It also provides reports on administrative, judicial and prosecutorial reforms, the practice of public law, the death penalty, compensation for victims of crimes, human rights, the law of labor contracts, the antimonopoly law, administrative charges, food and drug safety, and intellectual property. This yearbook provides valuable insight into contemporary debates in China about the substance, direction and priorities of legal reform.


Li Lin has been director of the CASS Institute of Law since 2005. His key works include Toward Constitutional Government Legislation, Building a Law-Governed Nation and a Legal System, Human Rights and Constitutional Government, and Reform of the Political Structure and Construction of a Legal System.