If you would like to attend via Zoom, please register at https://myumi.ch/1Aj8p

In this talk, Professor Michelson will present key findings from his new book of the same name. His analysis of almost 150,000 divorce trials in all 252 basic-level courts in two Chinese provinces, Henan and Zhejiang, reveals routine and egregious violations of China's own laws upholding the freedom of divorce, gender equality, and the protection of women's physical security. Domestic violence allegations, even when fully supported by legally admissible evidence, do not move the needle even one iota toward either divorce or, when judges grant divorces, child custody orders against abusers.

Ethan Michelson is the James and Noriko Gines Department Chair in East Asian Languages and Cultures as well as Professor of Sociology and Law at Indiana University Bloomington, where he has been teaching courses on law and society, law and authoritarianism, and contemporary Chinese society since 2003.