Stanford Law School has launched the China Guiding Cases Project (CGCP), a project that seeks to inform scholars in and outside of China about legal cases decided by China’s Supreme People’s Court.

In Nov. 2010 China’s Supreme People’s Court decided to institute “guiding cases” that lower courts would be compelled to follow, a major change to the Chinese legal system. In addition, higher Chinese courts implied harsh consequences if lower courts refused to follow the decisions in these cases.

The CGCP hopes to index these decisions in an online, searchable format and translate them to English. The site will allow legal experts to post commentary about the cases, discussing any implications or nuances, and will also allow for dialogue between commenters and experts. All cases and commentary will be posted in both Chinese and English.

The program is led by Mei Gechlik, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a researcher at Stanford Law School. Gechlik has experience working in Asia and the United States. She has testified before Congress and advised the U.N. about China-related issues.

-Brendan O’Byrne