Learning Rule of Law

Using primary materials on participatory legislation and the abolishment of the re-education through labour system (RETL), this chapter shows that, on the one hand, stories of Northern/Western countries are still prioritised in formal reports and study tours, framed with notions of standardisation and institutionalisation under the imperative to modernise. On the other hand, experiences with geographical and ideological similarity in Southern countries are narrated to resonate with postcolonial identity, lessening the political resistance from the governments involved. The power of lesson-drawing is connected to the strong implication that local reforms are part of a broader global movement in converging normative principles, yet these lessons are only effective and persuasive once they attain local resonance that transform their epistemic otherness into agreeable heterogeneity.