Criminal Defense in China

"Illiberal political societies come with varieties of labels - absolute monarchies, military dictatorships, authoritarian or totalitarian politics, Big Man regimes, or dual states. Yet they share key features in common - little or no restraint on arbitrary executive power, most especially as it is exercised through military, police and security apparatuses; law that is distorted and circumscribed and ultimately ineffectual in its protections of individuals and organizations offensive to the ruling power; little space for voices to speak freely about their rulers, their qualities of life, or their circumstances in times and places and organizations of their own choosing; severely constricted notions of rights-bearing citizens beyond those granted or withdrawn by the rulers themselves; and precariousness of property ownership, among others"--Prologue, pages xi-xi. "Criminal Defense in China studies empirically the everyday work and political mobilization of defense lawyers in China. It builds upon 329 interviews across China, and other social science methods, to investigate and analyze the interweaving of politics and practice in five segments of the practicing criminal defense bar i