Lawyers rely on local officials to renew their licenses from year to year. It's one of the reasons taking on cases against officials and state-linked companies can be a risky business. Ran Tong accepts the cases other lawyers won't touch. (4 minutes)

Judge Li and her colleagues regularly travel to the outlying hill villages around Gongxian with a mobile court. It's part of the government's effort to bring the emerging legal system to the farthest corners of the country.

Being involved in a lawsuit used to be considered a disgrace, but now central Chengdu's district court's busy docket is filled with employee disputes, road accidents, divorce petitions, and migrant labor cases.

In a practice court for law students at Sichuan University in the city of Chengdu, 1000 miles southwest of China's capital, Beijing, they're re-examining a real-life industrial injury case between a laborer and his employers.

by Benjamin Liebman. Over the past decade, China's Communist Party leadership has embraced law to an unprecedented degree. China's leaders view creating a fair and effective legal system as crucial to their own legitimacy.

glossary, suggested reading and Web sites

This is a list of important themes and video segments that can be used in classroom discussions of The People's Court.

The People's Court takes viewers inside the courtrooms and law schools of China to provide an unprecedented portrait of its rapidly growing legal system.