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photo credit: Maggie Still
Vocabulary
disenfranchised: deprived of legal rights or privileges
habeas corpus: (Latin meaning: you should have the body) a legal order (writ) to bring a party before a court or judge; frequently used to determine if a person’s imprisonment is legal
jury trial: a legal proceeding in which a group of people (jurors) are chosen to determine the facts of a case and give a verdict
law: a community’s rules that are enforced by authorities
procedural law: the rules that determine what happens in a civil or criminal court and how parties can prosecute and defend a case
supreme court: the court that has jurisdiction over all other courts in a state or country
tribunal: a court or assembly of one or more judges
photo credit: Maggie Still
Resources
Web Sites
CIA – The World Factbook – China
Library of Congress Federal Research Division Country Profile: China, August 2006
Human Rights in China “State Secrets: China’s Legal Labyrinth” (2007)
Amnesty International “The Olympics Countdown”
Books and Articles
Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.
Hsu, Immanuel C. Y. The Rise of Modern China. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Kynge, James. China Shakes the World: A Titan’s Rise and Troubled Future — and the Challenge for America. New York: Mariner Books, 2007.
Shirk, Susan L. China: Fragile Superpower: How China’s Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Jim Yardley and Joseph Kahn’s series of articles for the New York Times about China’s legal system from 2005 – 2007: www.nytimes.com/ref/world/asia/rule_index.html
