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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a closely constituted party. Recent studies of the CCP describe and evaluate its formal rules, but to understand the Party as an institution we also need to understand its informal rules. The literature on "party norms", "institutionalization" and the "unwritten constitution" often fails to distinguish rules from other political phenomena. It confuses informal rules with political practices, constitutional conventions, behavioural equilibria and doctrinal discourse. It is prone to overlook important rules, and to see rules where there are none. Hence, it potentially overstates how institutionalized the CCP is, and therefore how resilient it is. The article provides a clearer account of informal rules and suggests a different explanation for the resilience of the CCP. (China Q / GIGA)

This article reviews the development of three important themes in the Chinese Communist Party's (ccp's) description of the rule of law since China's opening up and reform began in December 1978. It expands upon key Party documents that frame the meaning of the rule of law in ccp doctrine. It sets out the doctrine, identifies significant changes, and considers what they might mean for the Party's present stance toward law and legal construction. It builds upon a broad literature that explores those documents and that doctrine, focusing on three connected points of tension in the Party's articulation: the relationship between rule of law and rule by law, the relationship between the rule of law and Party leadership, and the relationship between the rule of law and Party discipline.

This article charts the evolution of Party doctrine regarding the rule of law in the formative period from 2002 until 2014. The article uses the reported content of Politburo study sessions to shed light on leadership deliberations during this period, and shows how the Politburo's conception of the rule of law developed. It demonstrates that the concepts that shape the official account of the rule of law were established in the early part of Hu Jintao's term in office. In particular, the rule of law was reconciled with party leadership by presenting these ideas as parts of a vague "organic unity." The article also contrasts an earlier vision of the rule of law as something that rectifies institutions with a later vision of the rule of law as something that rectifies cadres. Together, these concepts underpin current Party doctrine on the rule of law. (China J/GIGA)

With its ample resonance both within China and internationally, the 'rule of law' (yifa zhiguo) is an expression that can justify the most disparate justice reforms. It is both a political value worth defending and a reason for consternation; it is an ideal that is inherently troubling and troubled by its interlocutors, advocates, and critics. For this reason, even the term 'yifa zhiguo' has been translated differently by different interlocutors, with 'rule of law', 'rule by law' and 'ruling the country according to the law' being the most frequent renderings in the English language.