When he first began studying Chinese law, Peter Corne concluded that lawyers in China, both domestic and expatriate, “were perpetrating a kind of illusion”. Mr Corne, an Australian-trained lawyer who today heads the Shanghai office of Eversheds, the UK firm, says: “Western lawyers, like me, and Chinese lawyers who had been to the States and come back were trying to promote a system of law based on western training.” China still does not have a legal system that matches those of most western countries. While many foreign lawyers have offices in China, they cannot officially practise law in the country and have to act through local firms.
But Mr Corne and other lawyers based in Shanghai say there have been improvements. Judges are better trained. Foreign investors sometimes win cases against Chinese companies that have copied their products, although damages are not huge.
Many investors and diplomats say that more of this progress is vital if Shanghai is to have any chance of meeting its goal of becoming an international financial centre by 2020.