Mediating state–society disputes in China: Outsourced lawyers and their selective responses

Abstract

Where popular contention in China is concerned, third parties are not merely supporters of protesters but also allies of the state. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, this article uses an actor-centred perspective to explore the dual role of Chinese lawyers in state dispute resolution projects. When providing legal counselling services to the public, lawyers adopt selective strategies and channel non-political cases into legal channels while keeping political cases within the political arena. When handling social disputes for the government, however, they apply professional diagnoses and legal persuasion, and intervene through mediation and negotiation. Three factors constrain the effectiveness of Chinese lawyers during dispute resolution. These are the limited access to cases, the dilemmas inherent in acting simultaneously both as a third party and as a state agent, and the restricted influence of lawyers over the final resolution of social disputes. This article argues that the selective responses of Chinese lawyers during legal counselling and strategic defence of state power in dispute resolution make them a governance tool for stability maintenance. Their participation contributes more to legal repression than to legal development in contemporary China.