Engaging the Law in China: State, Society, and Possibilities for Justice. Edited by Neil J. Diamant, Stanley B. Lubman, and Kevin J. O'Brien. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005. 256p. $49.50.

This book, an outgrowth of a 2002 conference held at the University of California at Berkeley, takes as a given the importance of law as an operational concept in China. Rather, the fundamental questions for investigation are 1) how, when, and to whom law matters, and 2) how to study the relationship between law and society (p. 3). Traditionally, the study of Chinese law has been the preserve of legal specialists, predominantly lawyers, who have focused their attention on the institutional development of the Chinese legal system. This book takes an alternative approach in that it seeks to broaden the scope of investigation of Chinese legal issues. The contributors are primarily young scholars in the social sciences—notably political science and sociology—who report on their recent field research in China.