Governance of a Party-state

This book explores the intrinsic logic of the formal normative system of the Chinese Communist Party as the mode of governance of China’s Party-state. Painstakingly researched, it argues that through normalizing its political prerogative, the Party constructs and relies on an integral regulatory system, where politics and law are fused by design, to govern the Party itself, the Party-state relations, and the society through the state. The theory is empirically grounded in an investigation spanning over two decades of judicial decision-making, proliferation of corruption, anticorruption investigation and Politburo power struggles, relying on a copious body of primary sources. The book provides clarity to several empirically salient but conceptually murky features of Chinese politics and law. It also breaks down the sui generis barrier of the Chinese practices and creates a language with which such practices can be communicated in broader comparative contexts.

Dr. Ling Li is an interdisciplinary scholar specializing in the intersection of law and politics in China. From 2000 to 2010, she served as a faculty member of law in China before joining the US–Asia Law Institute at New York University as a Senior Research Fellow (2010–2015). Since 2015, Dr. Li has been teaching China Studies in Vienna, where she continues to explore the complexities of Chinese public law, legal institutions, elite politics, and the "rules of the game" within the Chinese Communist Party. Her unique interdisciplinary approach is deeply informed by her academic and professional experiences across the People's Republic of China, the United States, and Europe, enabling her to analyse China from both an insider’s and an outsider’s perspective. A prolific and widely cited author, Dr. Li’s research on corruption, anti-corruption strategies, and the Chinese political-legal system has garnered attention from academic peers and international media alike. Her recent works include the article Order of Power in China’s Courts (Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2023) and the forthcoming monograph Governance of a Party-State: Corruption, Law, and the Modus Operandi of the Chinese Communist Party, to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2025

Introductory remarks Joseph Marko (University of Graz)

Moderation Ksenia Radchenkova  (University of Graz)

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