Robert Weatherley – författare

Hua Guofeng succeeded Mao in 1976, emerging almost out of nowhere following an unexceptional career in Shanxi and Hunan. In just over two years, Hua had been eclipsed by Deng Xiaoping, a more politically shrewd, progressive and charismatic figure. If Hua's rise to power was remarkable, then this fall was even more so.

Since the victory of the 1949 revolution the incumbency of the Chinese Communist Party has been characterized by an almost relentless struggle to legitimize its monopoly on political power. During the Mao era, attempts to derive legitimacy focused primarily on mass participation in political affairs, a blend of Marxist and nationalist ideology, and the charismatic authority of Mao Zedong. The dramatic failure of the Cultural Revolution forced the post-Mao leadership to discard these discredited paradigms of legitimacy and move towards an almost exclusively performance based concept founded on market economic reform. The reforms during the 1980s generated a number of unwelcome but inevitable side effects such as official corruption, high unemployment and significant socio-economic inequality. These factors culminated ultimately in the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and throughout China. Since Tiananmen the party has sought to diversify the basis of its legitimacy by adhering more closely to constitutional procedures in decision making and, to a certain extent, by reinventing itself as a conservative nationalist party. This probing study of post-communist revolution Chinese politics sets out to discover if there is a plausible alternative to the electoral mode or if legitimacy is the exclusive domain of the multi-party system.

Since the victory of the 1949 revolution the incumbency of the Chinese Communist Party has been characterized by an almost relentless struggle to legitimize its monopoly on political power. During the Mao era, attempts to derive legitimacy focused primarily on mass participation in political affairs, a blend of Marxist and nationalist ideology, and the charismatic authority of Mao Zedong. The dramatic failure of the Cultural Revolution forced the post-Mao leadership to discard these discredited paradigms of legitimacy and move towards an almost exclusively performance based concept founded on market economic reform. The reforms during the 1980s generated a number of unwelcome but inevitable side effects such as official corruption, high unemployment and significant socio-economic inequality. These factors culminated ultimately in the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and throughout China. Since Tiananmen the party has sought to diversify the basis of its legitimacy by adhering more closely to constitutional procedures in decision making and, to a certain extent, by reinventing itself as a conservative nationalist party. This probing study of post-communist revolution Chinese politics sets out to discover if there is a plausible alternative to the electoral mode or if legitimacy is the exclusive domain of the multi-party system.

The second edition of this accessible book is a single up-to-date reference work which discusses a broad range of public and private law topics which directly impact on the use and development of land. In addition to new chapters on wayleaves, planning enforcement, and trees and hedgerows, this updated edition includes coverage of significant recent cases such as: • EASEMENTS: Regency Villas Ltd v Diamond Resorts (Europe) Ltd [2018] UKSC 57 (a case discussing the four essential requirements of an easement), together with some recent authorities on prescription, such as Hughes v Benefice of Frampton-on-Severn, Arlingham, Saul, Fretherne & Framilode [2021] UKUT 184 (LC). • TOWN AND VILLAGE GREENS: TW Logistics Ltd v Essex County Council [2021] AC 1050 (the post-registration rights of a landowner and the interplay with the so-called ‘Victorian Statutes’) and R (Bellway Homes Ltd) v Kent County Council [2022] EWHC2593 (trigger events under s.15C of the Commons Act 2006). • PUBLIC RIGHTS OF WAY: DPP v Ziegler [2021] UKSC 23 (the interplay between a person’s right to protest and the obligation not to obstruct the highway) and R (Monckton) v Staffordshire County Council [2022] EWHC 3049 (Admin) (judicial review in the case of a modification order before it was confirmed). • RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS: Birdlip Ltd v Hunter [2016] EWCA Civ 603 (the prerequisites for a building scheme) and Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery [2023] UKSC 4 (a case which involves a modern restatement of the law of private nuisance in the context of visual intrusion). • ASSETS OF COMMUNITY VALUE: Banner Homes Ltd v St Albans District Council [2018] EWCA Civ 1187 (a case discussing the meaning of ‘actual use’ in section 88(2)(a) of the Localism Act 2011) and R (TV Harrison CIC) v Leeds City Council [2022] EWHC 130 (Admin) (a judgment which cites from four decisions of the FTT)).

Planning Law: A Practitioner's Handbook is an indispensable reference work for the busy planning professional, providing answers to a whole range of problems which commonly arise in day-to-day practice.  The second edition has new and expanded chapters on a number of topics, such as housing supply and the operation of the titled balance, renewable energy from wind and solar. It also deals with national policy in conserving and enhancing the natural environment (including the protected landscapes duty in the case of national parks and National Landscapes [formerly AONBs], planning in the Green Belt, planning and flood risk, planning in town centres and air quality). The book also has up-to-date chapters on planning enforcement, legal challenges and public rights of way. This second edition covers several important recent developments since the publication of the first edition, such as the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. There are also chapters dealing with recent reforms and further anticipated changes to planning law.

This book examines how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has attempted to bolster its nationalist legitimacy through the utilisation of Chinese history. The aim is to remind the Chinese people that the CCP liberated China from imperialism after 1949 and has since restored national pride.

Hua Guofeng succeeded Mao in 1976, emerging almost out of nowhere following an unexceptional career in Shanxi and Hunan. In just over two years, Hua had been eclipsed by Deng Xiaoping, a more politically shrewd, progressive and charismatic figure. If Hua's rise to power was remarkable, then this fall was even more so.

If the history of modern China was written as a book, its author would be accused of losing touch with reality. During the twentieth century, China underwent two revolutions, a number of wars, endured a radical and destabilising form of communism and then hurried quickly towards a system of open market economics whilst remaining under the control of a nominally communist party. Currently the fastest growing economy in the world with an increasingly sophisticated and expanding military, China is widely expected to emerge as the world's next superpower, eclipsing the United States in the not too distant future.However, not everything is going smoothly for Beijing. Unemployment rates are spiralling, inequality is rife and official corruption at all levels remains an Achilles heel for the Chinese Communist Party, despite Xi Jinping's best endeavours to wipe it out. Worst of all, environmental degradation is at such a serious level that it threatens the success of the Chinese economy and the stability of Chinese society.Against this scarcely believable backdrop and based on a series of lectures, seminars and research conducted by the author, Mao's China and Post-Mao China captures the dynamics, dynamism and disasters of Chinese politics since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. This advanced textbook identifies three key themes that have underpinned the post-revolutionary era, the so-called "three Rs" — Revolution, Recovery and Rejuvenation — and is essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of modern China at the undergraduate and postgraduate level