Negotiating Legality

This book is an interdisciplinary, mixed-method study of Chinese companies' interactions with the US legal system. Drawing from extensive interviews and survey data, it deepens our understanding of Chinese investment in the US, its impacts on the US legal profession, US law, and the broader US-China relations.

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Despite escalating geopolitical rivalry, the US and China continue to be economically intertwined. Numerous Chinese companies have made substantial investments in the US and are reluctant to exit this strategically important market. While the global expansion of Chinese companies has ignited intense policy and academic debates, their interactions with complex host-state legal systems have largely escaped systematic examination. To fill this knowledge gap, Negotiating Legality introduces a dual institutional framework and applies it to analyzing extensive interviews and multi-year survey data, thereby shedding light on how Chinese companies develop in-house legal capacities, engage with US legal professionals, and navigate litigation in US courts. As the first comprehensive investigation of these crucial topics, this book is indispensable for anyone interested in China's rise, its global impacts-especially on legal systems of developed nations like the US-and the intricate dynamics of US-China relations.