Flora Sapio, Ph.D. (2004) in Contemporary China Studies, University La Sapienza of Rome, is a lecturer in social and juridical institutions of the Far East at the Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Italy. She publishes on crime and criminal justice.

In China the coexistence of arbitrary detention and a transition towards a rule of law is either seen as an oxymoron, or as an aberration. This book analyses under-researched institutions and practices in China’s criminal justice system, arguing that derogations from the rule of law constitute an organic component of the legal order. Hidden behind the law, there lays sovereign power, a power premised on the choice to handle certain issues through procedures that derogate from rights. This theoretically sophisticated study overcomes the current impasses in analyses of China’s criminal justice. The result is an highly innovative reading of law and legality in the PRC, useful to scholars of contemporary China, mainstream political theorists, philosophers of law and policy makers.