A podcast on Eastern & Western legal history
A podcast on the legal history of East and West. It tries to hold ancient Rome and twenty-first-century China within a single thread—the long journey toward justice, and the way law is fought over, patched, and rewritten between the state and the individual, between custom and rule.
Episodes
15 The Sun Zhigang Case: The End of Custody and Repatriation
2026-08-20 · 30 min · 
On the night of March 17, 2003, police stopped twenty-seven-year-old Sun Zhigang on a Guangzhou street. Three days later, he died in a medical center for people held in custody and repatriation. Beginning with the night Sun was taken away, this episode traces how wrongful detention, public opinion, and administrative lawmaking converged—and how a criminal case born of an enforcement error advanced China’s system for reviewing legislation.
14 Could Being Jobless Be a Crime? America’s Constitutional Reckoning with Vagrancy Laws
2026-08-14 · 33 min ·
In 1969, four young people driving to a nightclub in Jacksonville, Florida, were arrested for “prowling by auto.” This episode follows Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville from medieval English vagrancy law and the post–Civil War Black Codes to modern camping bans, asking how vague laws can turn a police officer’s suspicion into arrest and conviction.
13 China’s “First Constitutional Case”: The Stolen Right to Education
2026-08-05 · 32 min ·
In late 1998, Qi Yuling discovered that a former classmate had used her identity and admission notice to take her place at a technical secondary school eight years earlier. This episode traces how the Supreme People’s Court brought the constitutional right to education into a civil dispute through its 2001 Reply No. 25—and why the reply’s repeal seven years later left the debate over judicial application of the Constitution unresolved.
12 Is Burning the American Flag a Crime? The Judicial Battle over the First Amendment
2026-07-28 · 26 min ·
In 1984, protester Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag during the Republican National Convention and was convicted of a crime. Beginning with Texas v. Johnson, this episode explains why political flag burning became expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment—and whether the government may impose criminal punishment simply because a political message offends the public.
11 Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage: The Systemic Collapse of Late-Qing Justice
2026-07-22 · 25 min ·
How could a manifestly defective death investigation survive layer after layer of review and nearly send two innocent people to execution? Beginning with an uncleaned silver test needle, this episode traces how a botched autopsy, torture, fabricated corroboration, and five levels of review turned prejudice into an “iron case”—and how gentry networks, newspapers, and imperial power finally reopened it.
10 You Have the Right to Remain Silent: How the Miranda Warning Changed American Justice
2026-07-16 · 27 min ·
How did “You have the right to remain silent” move from a line in police dramas to a rule officers across America must follow? Beginning with Miranda v. Arizona, this episode explains how a rape suspect with little education reached the Supreme Court, and why a confession may be excluded even without physical coercion when police fail to advise a suspect of his rights.
09 The End of the Chinese Legal Tradition: How Late-Qing Reforms Reshaped the Rule of Law
2026-07-10 · 32 min ·
Why did a faltering Qing dynasty spend its final decade translating foreign codes, abolishing lingchi, building courts, and drafting a civil code? Returning to 1902–1911, this episode traces how foreign legal pressure, imperial self-preservation, conflict over ritual, and provincial resistance converged in reforms that failed to save the dynasty but dismantled the old Chinese legal tradition and seeded modern law.
08 The Supreme Court in the Crevice: The Birth of American Judicial Review
2026-07-08 · 28 min ·
The U.S. Constitution never expressly gives the Supreme Court power to interpret it. Returning to Marbury v. Madison (1803), this episode shows how an undelivered commission and a political struggle enabled the Court to claim judicial review and make it a cornerstone of the separation of powers.
07 Shi Jianqiao and the Assassination of Sun Chuanfang
2026-07-05 · 25 min ·
In 1935, Shi Jianqiao shot Sun Chuanfang in a Buddhist hall in Tianjin to avenge her father, then scattered leaflets and surrendered. From her decade-long pursuit of revenge through three levels of Republican courts and a Nationalist pardon, this episode asks how traditional filial duty fared under modern criminal law.
06 U.S. Birthright Citizenship: Total Victory or Temporary Truce?
2026-07-02 · 27 min ·
On June 30, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6–3 to strike down Trump’s Executive Order 14160 and reaffirm birthright citizenship. This episode follows the dispute from the order and preliminary injunctions through class-action strategy and the final judgment, reads the justices’ separate opinions, and asks how secure the victory really is.
05 Gao Mingxuan and Chinese Criminal Law: Four Elements vs. Three Tiers
2026-02-27 · 26 min ·
Gao Mingxuan, a towering figure in Chinese criminal law, died on February 26, 2026, aged 98. Beginning with his role in drafting the PRC’s first criminal code, this episode unpacks the long debate between the four-element and three-tier theories of crime—and asks how state penal power should be exercised and citizens’ rights protected.
04 How Did the Japanese Come to Terms with Defeat? A 32-Year Fight Against the Government
2026-02-26 · 33 min ·
What can one person do when the state uses textbooks to reshape memory of war? This episode follows historian Saburō Ienaga’s three lawsuits over 32 years against revisions to accounts of Japan’s wartime aggression, the Nanjing Massacre, and Unit 731, examining the boundaries among state screening, academic freedom, and responsibility for war.
03 How Trump Challenges the Constitution: The Legal Battle over Birthright Citizenship
2025-07-04 · 26 min ·
Focusing on birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, this episode starts from the Supreme Court’s then-recent procedural ruling, Wong Kim Ark, and the doctrine’s history. It traces how the Trump administration challenged the principle through an executive order and litigation, and examines the contest between jus soli and jus sanguinis.
02 A Survival Manual for Tang-Dynasty Justice: A Case that Sparked the Rites-vs-Law Debate
2025-06-11 · 22 min ·
Under Wu Zetian, an act of filial revenge brought Confucian duty into direct conflict with state law. Through the case of Xu Yuanqing, this episode introduces the Tang Code and judicial system, revisits the century-spanning debate between Chen Zi’ang and Liu Zongyuan, and asks whether state power and moral justice can coexist.
01 From the First Emperor to the Revival of Roman Law: State-Building Meets the Rule of Law
2025-06-09 · 14 min ·
Drawing on Francis Fukuyama’s The Origins of Political Order, this episode moves from Qin unification and the Qin legal system to the revival of Roman law, Bologna, and natural law. It compares China’s early centralized state with Europe’s later development of law and accountable government, asking how state power, the rule of law, and accountability together make modern political order.