Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics: An Empirical Cultural Perspective on China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

This article uses empirical data to analyse the meaning of rule of law with Chinese characteristics. It compares rule of law data on China, Hong Kong and Singapore from the World justice Project and finds patterns of more limited protection of individual rights and fewer limits on governmental powers. It then uses Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions to consider whether those patterns are related to common cultural characteristics. It finds low scores on the cultural value of individualism in those three jurisdictions are correlated with lower protection for individual rights, and that high scores on Hofstede's Power Distribution Index are inversely correlated with strong governmental powers. It concludes that rule of law with Chinese characteristics means a version of rule of law with more limited protections for individual rights and with strong governmental powers with fewer legal limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]