CHINESE LAW AND SOCIETY TALK SERIES
Book Launch
Extralegal Governance: The Social Order of Illegal Markets in China
Date & Time: October 31, 2025 (Friday) 10:30-12:00
Venue: Room 901, 9/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
Language: English
(In-person event
Abstract:
Drawing on insights from sociology and new institutional economics, Extralegal Governance provides the first comprehensive account of China’s illegal markets by applying a socio-economic approach. It considers social legitimacy and state repression in examining the nature of illegal markets. It examines how power dynamics and varying levels of punishment shape exchange relationships between buyers and sellers. It identifies context-specific risks and explains how private individuals and organizations address these risks by developing extralegal governance institutions to facilitate social cooperation across various illegal markets. Adopting a multiple case study design to sample China’s illegal markets, this book utilizes four cases – street vending, small property rights housing, corrupt exchanges, and online loan sharks – to examine how market participants foster cooperation and social order in illegal markets.
Speakers:
Peng Wang is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong. He is the author of The Chinese Mafia: Organized Crime, Corruption, and Extra-Legal Protection (2017). His research interests include organized crime, illegal markets, corruption, economic sociology, socio-legal studies, bureaucracy, and governance.
Wanlin Lin is Associate Professor at the School of Law, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. Her current research applies institutional economics, law and economics, and game theory to the study of informal property rights, illegal markets, and knowledge governance in China, and interactions between formal and informal institutions.
Chair:
Ying Xia is Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Philip K. H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law at The University of Hong Kong.
This is an in-person event for the audience. Prior registration is required. Please visit http://bit.ly/4h4Yuc6 to register. For inquiries, please email Louisa at .
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