John K.M. Ohnesorge, University of Wisconsin Law School, has posted Regulation of the Legal Profession in China: An Historical Overview, which is forthcoming in China Law & Society Review:
This essay begins with an exploration of the role of law and “proto lawyers” in imperial China, followed by a survey of the legal profession and its regulation in Republican China before 1949 (Section II). Section III addresses lawyer regulation during the high tide of Soviet and the Maoist influence (III.A.), and in the post-1978 reform period (III.B. and III.C.), including the regulation of foreign lawyers and law firms in the China market. Section III.D. turns to developments since Xi Jinping took power in 2012, and Section IV offers concluding observations.--Dan Ernst
