STANFORD, Calif., January 9, 2012—The China Guiding Cases Project (CGCP) of Stanford Law School today launched a new website that hosts “guiding cases” released by China’s Supreme People’s Court. While these “guiding cases” do not formally constitute binding precedents in the Western sense, they may evolve to have a similar effect.

In November 2010, the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China issued a groundbreaking rule that the “guiding cases” it releases should be “referred to” by courts at all levels in China. Today’s website launch includes the first four of those cases, which were released on December 20, 2011.

The overarching goal of the CGCP website is to advance knowledge and understanding of Chinese law and enable judges and legal experts (inside and outside of China) to contribute to the evolution of Chinese case law through ongoing dialogue of these “guiding cases.” The site contains the original Chinese version of the Court’s opinions and translations into English by the CGCP team.

Legal experts from around the world are invited to submit commentaries about the implications of these cases.

CGCP will hold a public event Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 12:45 to 2 p.m. at Stanford Law School to commemorate the public release of this new, online legal resource. Dean Larry Kramer will speak at the event about CGCP and other similar rule of law projects underway at Stanford Law School.

The CGCP site is located at: http://cgc.law.stanford.edu.