Environmental Litigation in China A Study in Political Ambivalence

This is a book about the improbable: seeking legal relief for pollution in contemporary China. In a country known for tight political control and ineffectual courts, Environmental Litigation in China unravels how everyday justice works: how judges make decisions, why lawyers take cases, and how international influence matters. It is a readable account of how the leadership's mixed signals and political ambivalence play out on the ground – propelling some, such as the village doctor who fought a chemical plant for more than a decade, even as others back away from risk. Yet this remarkable book shows that even in a country where expectations would be that law wouldn't much matter, environmental litigation provides a sliver of space for legal professionals to explore new roles and, in so doing, probe the boundary of what is politically possible.

• Draws on sixteen months of field research, including four case studies and over 160 interviews

• Highly interdisciplinary, drawing on relevant literature from across the social sciences (political science, sociology, law, anthropology)

• Avoids jargon and is accessible to a wide audience