Yet another "Top Ten of 2009" list

In this instance, top ten influential cases that changed China, as published in Nanfang Zhoumo (Southern Weekend). The process by which the cases are selected is too complicated to explain here; it's explained in the report. It involves nomination of cases by legal experts and voting on them via the internet by anyone who's interested. Here are the cases (no time for full commentary, I'm afraid; click on links for more information). Not all are actual cases in the sense of involving courtroom litigation, but they bear on the legal system in some way. The list (it's in Chinese) includes comments by legal experts and others. The links below are all to English-language sources.

1. The "hide-and-seek" prisoner death case

2. The open-chest surgery labor compensation case

3. The Tang Fuzhen self-immolation case

4. The Deng Yujiao case

5. Fishing-style law enforcement

6. The Wang Shuai interprovincial arrest case

7. The Hangzhou drag racing death case

8. The Luo Caixia identity theft case

9. The Li Zhuang case

10.The Huzhou "spur-of-the-moment" rape case [original report | follow-up]. This case is more widely (but in my view inaccurately) known in English as the "temporary rape" case.