Susan Finder has been observing the Supreme People’s Court for over 30 years. In August 2018, she was appointed a member of the international commercial expert committee of the China International Commercial Court (CICC) of the Supreme People’s Court and was reappointed in August 2022. She is also on the committee of the Shanghai International Arbitration Center. All views expressed on this blog are her own and none should be attributed to the CICC, the Supreme People’s Court, or the Shanghai International Arbitration Center. As anyone looking closely at articles on this blog can see, most substantive blogposts (for the past 6+ years) have been peer-reviewed by persons knowledgeable about the topic in question.
She is the Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the School of Transnational Law of Peking University (Shenzhen), where she teaches about judicial reform in comparative perspective. In 2021, she was appointed a Faculty Fellow of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong for a two-year term.. She speaks on Chinese legal issues in Hong Kong, mainland China, the United States, and Europe and works on Chinese law-related consulting projects from time to time Occasionally, she writes for The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and the Global Military Justice Reform blog. She occasionally publishes articles in academic journals, where she is often cited. Her writings have also been published in China, including in several prominent Wechat public accounts. Major media that have sought her comments on Chinese legal developments include: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Financial Times and Reuters.
Earlier in her career, she taught Chinese law and other subjects in the Law Department of the City University of Hong Kong. Her research on the Supreme People’s Court dates back to that period. Her early research resulted in the first close analysis of its operations. She then put her knowledge of Chinese law to work in the China practice group of the international law firm Freshfields, Bruckhaus Deringer and several other law firms and institutions.
She had the good fortune to study with three of the early pioneers of Chinese legal studies (in the United States): Jerome Cohen, R. Randle Edwards, and Stanley Lubman and to have many leading practitioners and legal academics among her classmates at Harvard Law School (J.D.) and Columbia Law School (LL.M).
Susan Finder speaks and reads (Mandarin) Chinese and Russian and some German. For the avoidance of doubt, the research in these blogposts is the author’s own, except as otherwise credited.
She can be contacted through the comment function or at supremepeoplescourtmonitor@gmail.com.
Supreme People's Court Monitor 
I look forward to following your blog!
Your “About Me” is if anything too modest and is refreshingly devoid of salesman’s puffery! I will read your blog with interest.
Thank you very much!
Your blog is very helpful, thank you for your effort!
Thank you and I look forward to hearing more about research and study about Chinese law in the Czech Republic, especially at your university, which I understand to be the leading one in your country.
Well, I’m working on my PhD thesis related to the Chinese law, but even though the Chinese language courses are becoming more and more popular at my university, there are not many students interested in the Chinese law, especially modern law. I’ll be happy to discuss more with you via email!
Dear Ms Finder,
I am trying to find out whether the chinese maritime courts are funded by the central government or the local governments where the courts are located. Would you know the answer or know a good source on this area?
Thank you for your help.
Benedict Connors
I am an Italian lawyer, and I took a master degree in Chinese Business Law at The Open University of Hong Kong.
Thank you very much for your help, your blog is great!
Thank you! I have studied Chinese in China and at University since ’80…and now I usually write in Italy, about China legislation, Hong Kong, rule of the law….geopolitics…so on…my blog is:
Auroraborealeorientale.wordpress.com…many thanks for your wonderful blog, very very interesting !
Thank you for your wonderful site. I’m very new in this area but I’m looking for a Fuqing People’s Court case from 2011. Civil division. Do I have any hope of finding a record of it online?
you can try searching their website or alternatively databases such as Chinalawinfo or Westlaw China. No assurance of finding a case from 2011 because those did not need to be published.
Dear Ms. Finder, I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts, which have been thought-provoking and provided constructive direction. Many thanks for your devotion and persistence. Todd L. Platek, Esq.
Indeed, a great piece that highlights the PRC world wide trade ambitions under the CPC’s one belt one road project.It raises two fundamental questions. Does the Chinese communist legal system pose a direct challenge to the capitalistic global maritime practices? And does the one belt one road vision aim at Chinese plans to monoplise the entire shipping business? Maqbool Malik at maqboolkp15@gmail.com
This is an excellent and insightful live view of legal developments in China which are so important to trade in the current challenging environment.
Many thanks! If there are particular issues you are interested in, please comment again.