Provincial laws on the protection of women in China: a partial test of Black's theory

Using data extracted from 29 provincial laws on the protection of women in China promulgated during the 1980s, this study tests Black's (1976) proposition that the quantity of law varies with stratification, morphology, culture, organization, and social control. Analyses yielded little support for Black's propositions except significant direct relationships between morphology and the quantity of five types of provincial laws. The article concludes with a discussion of alternative explanations for the observed findings and the implications of this research for further studies on the development of law.