In China the coexistence of arbitrary detention and a transition towards a rule of law is either seen as an oxymoron, or as an aberration. This book analyses under-researched institutions and practices in China's criminal justice system, arguing that derogations from the rule of law constitute an organic component of the legal order. Hidden behind the law, there lies sovereign power, a power premised on the choice to handle certain issues through procedures that derogate from rights. This theoretically sophisticated study overcomes the current impasses in analyses of China's criminal justice....

The volume presents an extensive investigation into the process of reforms of detention powers in today s China and offers an in-depth analysis of the debates surrounding the reformist attempts. The chapters in this collection demonstrate that legislative and institutional reforms in this area result from political opportunities - openings and tensions at the central institutional levels of political authority - and contingent social and political factors. The book examines legal and institutional reforms to institutions of detention and imprisonment that have occurred since the 1990s, with a...