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Through a Glass Darkly: China, Transparency and the WTO Volume 3, No. 1 Sarah Biddulph Sarah Biddulph, Associate Director (China), Asian Law Centre, and Associate Professor and Reader, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne. The transparency of China's legal system is a significant issue as China seeks accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The author examines the three principles of transparency - public availability of laws, procedural fairness in decision-making and an independent system of judicial review - as they are implemented in the Chinese legal system. Particular attention is paid to the framework of administrative decision-making, including the institutionalisation of broad administrative discretion, and to bureaucratic culture. The author argues that no country can claim to implement perfectly all the components of legal transparency and that the features of China's legal system that are at odds with the transparency ideal must be placed in the context of China's economic transition and its rapidly developing legal system. |