Of laws and men

摘要

The crux of the problem is that "governance can't improve faster than legislation, but legislation can't move faster than social practice," says Jerome Cohen, a New York lawyer who advises foreign clients on doing business in China. So even if tomorrow morning every one of China's chief executives woke up as a passionate believer in good corporate governance, it might still prove elusive. This is because best practice within companies depends on best practice outside companies, above all in the legal system. And China has one of the worst in the world (see chart 7, next page).