Access to Justice for the Chinese Consumer: Handling Consumer Disputes in Contemporary China

Description

This book offers a socio-legal exploration of localised consumer complaint processing and dispute resolution in the People's Republic of China - now the second largest consumer market in the world - and the experiences of both ordinary and 'professional' consumers. Drawing on detailed analysis of an impressive body of empirical data, this book highlights local Chinese understandings and practice styles of 'mediation', and identifies in popular consciousness a continuing sense of reliance on the government for securing consumer rights in China. These are not only important features of consumer dispute processing in themselves, but also help to to explain why no ombudsman system has emerged. This innovative book looks at the nature of China's distinctive dispute resolution and complaints system, issues within that system, and the experiences of consumers within it. The book illustrates the access to justice processes locally available to aggrieved consumers and provides a unique contribution to comparative consumer law studies in Asia and elsewhere.

Ling Zhou is Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, UK.

This is an impressive and well-written analysis of consumer dispute resolution in contemporary China ... the research findings of the study have significant theoretical relevance and will have an important impact. It is likely that a wide range of readers will find much to interest them in this fine piece of work. -- Maria Federica Moscati * Amicus Curiae * A highly significant and valuable contribution to understanding how consumer complaints are handled in contemporary China ... This comprehensive and thorough approach to empirical research results in a highly detailed and readable volume overall. -- Kristie Thomas * The China Quarterly * With her well-written monograph, Ling Zhou fills an important gap in the literature as it is one of the first empirical studies on how consumer protection laws are actually enforced in contemporary China. Through the lens of dispute resolution, she demonstrates that even in an authoritarian-capitalist system such as China, significant levels of consumer activism can be established, and the idea of consumer protection can flourish in a non-Western society. -- Andre Janssen, Radboud University Nijmegen * Asia Pacific Law Review * An insightful study of consumer dispute resolution in China today ... The book will serve as a very useful reference source for a broad range of readers, including those who are interested in the legal aspects from both a Chinese law and comparative law perspective. -- Andrew Godwin, University of Melbourne * The China Journal *