First Legal Survival Guide For Foreigners
Save yourself tens of thousands in legal fees Avoid time-costly traps that everybody falls for Avoid being jailed for breaking unknown laws Learn how to defend yourself in court
“Turns law into easy-to-understand, interesting and relatable articles.”
- DR. GEORGE LAM, B.B.S., J.P., Chairman of Cyberport
“Tedious legal concepts are well versed to bite-sized cases.”
- PAUL MAK, Standing Member of Shanghai People's Congress
“What Edgar is doing is something of monumental value.”
-LI SHI GANG, Associate Dean of Fudan Law School
“Very unique style and technique. I highly recommend.”
-LEI MEI, Founding Partner of Mei & Mark L.L.P.
The average law book is extremely boring and reader unfriendly. I hated reading them when I was in college and I bet you that I fell asleep mulitple times in class. The biggest difference between the Chinese legal system and the common law system is that China is not a case law country.
Instead, China adopts numerous rules and interpretations and local policies, some of which are too rare even for lawyers. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for a layman to understand. Therefore, I decided to change this status quo by making law more interesting by using cases or stories to explain legal principles and theories.
Foreigners are easy pickings for unethical people because of one very simple reason - you do not speak Chinese, and of course, you do not know the law here. It is very difficult a good lawyer who speaks English well, and if you do stumble upon one, you will definately find a hefty price tag attached. I have had a few client try to find local lawyers, but lost their cases mainly due to the language barrier and the special laws for foreigners.
During my career, I have dealt with unethical landlords that refused to return deposits for no reason at all, trading companies or factories that refused to send goods even when the full amount was being paid or sent broken/second-hand goods, and other kinds of contract disputes between foreign companies and Chinese companies.
The law is the backbone of every country and society on our planet. I believe that this is a subject one must learn in life, no matter you make it your profession or not. By learning law, you protect yourself from verbal, physical and mental harm. Most people don't even know what rights they have in China, or they know a bit of law from their home country and find out that the rules are exactly the opposite here.
I have seen many expats who have been fined and deported because they violated laws that they didn't even know existed. For example, a lot of people do not even know that working at a different address than the one stated on your work permit is illegal.
Above is the reason behind why I wrote this book - to guide you through the know-hows of self-protecting. Instead of just explaining the law like any other textbooks, I decided to use interesting stories from real life cases to increase the readability and to lessen the difficulty in munching monotonous legal principles. Enjoy reading!