This is a great overview text that provides a great background of China's legal system through the millenia and takes it up to the 2008. Note, however, that China's current legal climate is very fluid and every changing. So, books dealing with Chinese legal system are out of date the moment they come out, as is the case with this text's later chapters. It's extensively sited, but take care to remember that the moment the book came out, it became more of a history text than a current commentary. As is, it's the best overview since Gordon Chang's ''The Coming Collapse of China'' (albeit from the opposite point of view).