Professional Affiliation

Senior Fellow and Visiting Lecturer-in-Law, Paul Tsai China Center, Yale Law School

Expert Bio

Jamie Horsley is Executive Director of The China Law Center and a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School, where her project work and research primarily has involved issues of governance, administrative law and regulatory reform in China, including promoting government transparency, public participation, improved administrative procedures and dispute resolution, and government accountability. Prior to joining Yale, she was a partner in the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Commercial Attaché in the U.S. Embassies in Beijing and Manila; Vice President of Motorola International, Inc. and Director of Government Relations for China for Motorola, Inc.; and a consultant to The Carter Center on village elections in China. A Yale Council of East Asian Studies Affiliate and member and former Director of the National Committee for US-China Relations, she holds a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.A. in Chinese Studies from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Wilson Center Project

"Rule of Law and Open Governance Reforms in China: Implications for China, U.S.-China Relations and International Relations"

Project Summary

China’s economic rise and growing global participation and influence make it a critical partner for the United States. Jamie Horsley’s project will explore underreported reforms that China’s leadership is instituting at home to develop a “scientific and democratic” socialist legal and governance system “with Chinese characteristics” that has implications for China’s involvement in the international arena.  She will analyze gradual reforms to delineate and restrain state power and improve governance through new laws and legal procedures, transparency, civic participation and accountability.  She will examine how the dynamic Chinese public is using these new mechanisms to engage the state, voice concerns, protect rights and press for further reforms, and the evolving, complex relationship between the Communist Party, the state and society in China.  Her project will consider the ramifications of these developments for China becoming a more law-abiding, open and collaborative partner for the Chinese people, the United States and the international community.

Major Publications

“China’s rulers commit to the (socialist) rule of law,” Nikkei Asian Review, October 27, 2014

“The Rule of Law: Pushing the Limits of Party Rule,” in Joseph Fewsmith, Ed., China Today, China Tomorrow: Domestic Politics, Economy, and Society (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010)

“The Development of Public Participation in the People’s Republic of China,” in Ethan J. Leib and Baogang He, Eds., The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China (2d Ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)