Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage faced execution in late-Qing China. This episode traces how torture and repeated reviews sustained a wrongful case, and how family petitions, political connections, and the press helped overturn it.

Trump lost his birthright citizenship case at the Supreme Court, then tried again. From Wong Kim Ark to Nathan v. Trump, this episode explores who becomes an American citizen at birth and how courts can protect that right.

Xu Yuanqing killed the official who had killed his father, then surrendered. This episode follows Chen Zi'ang and Liu Zongyuan's debate over filial duty, punishment, and the state's responsibility to provide justice in Tang China.

From Qin China to medieval Europe, this episode draws on Francis Fukuyama's The Origins of Political Order to explore how states gain power and how law can constrain rulers.

In 1987, Zhu Jiacheng and Zhu Gongbao, a farmer father and son from Lianshui, Jiangsu, refused to accept the administrative detention imposed on them by the public security authorities and sued the Lianshui County Public Security Bureau in court. The Lianshui County court ultimately revoked the police penalty ruling, making this the first case, before the Administrative Litigation Law was enacted, in which a court ruled against the public security authorities. This article traces the full course of the case.