Universität zu Köln

von Blomberg, Marianne ORCID: 0000-0001-9929-283X (2026). Assessment-driven regulation and the law: The case of China’s Social Credit System. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

Trustworthiness assessments are a ubiquitous guide to decision-making in the digital age. Devised by governments, companies, or social organisations, trustworthiness assessments of different types simplify the choices that consumers, public officials, or human resource departments, among others, make daily. With its plans for a Social Credit System, the government of the People’s Republic of China is the first to assert political authority over the rise of trustworthiness assessment regimes. The Social Credit System project draws in all parts of society. It addresses behaviour in all fields, establishing trustworthiness assessment-centred statecraft. The SCSP has a fundamental impact on the relations between the people and the state, as reflected in administrative law. This investigation asks how the Social Credit System project strengthens, weakens and transforms the law in China. Trustworthiness assessment-driven regulation influences traditional administrative law structures for rule-making, law enforcement, legal principles, and channels for the protection of rights, and these structures transform as a result. This study is grounded in analyses of legal and policy documents, court decisions, technical standards, and interviews with officials responsible for social credit implementation, citizens, judges, social credit theorists, corporate representatives, and lawyers conducted over three years of fieldwork across China. I demonstrate how the technique of trustworthiness assessments lies at the centre of all SCSP practices and further reveal discrepancies between this technique and the prevailing categories and logic of administrative law. On the one hand, trustworthiness assessment-driven regulation is an innovative and promising tool for law enforcement. Its rise spurred significant legal developments in China, such as the emergence of the prohibition of improper connection principle. At the same time, it undermines rights protections for citizens by hollowing out existing legal principles, such as proportionality, and by posing conceptual novelties that courts and other remedial institutions cannot address. Embedded in the socialist state structure and inspired by instances of assessment-driven regulation abroad, a form of trustworthiness assessment-centred administrative law emerges. The findings contribute to our understanding of both the nature of Chinese law and regulatory evolution in the data era.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Translated title:	Title Language Bewertungsbasierte Regulierung und das Recht: Der Fall von Chinas Sozialkreditsystem German
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code von Blomberg, Marianne marianne@von-blomberg.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9929-283X UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-806154
Date:	2026
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 4: Außereuropäische Sprachen, Kulturen und Gesellschaften > Ostasiatisches Seminar
Subjects:	Social sciences Economics Law Public administration Customs, etiquette, folklore Other languages Technology (Applied sciences)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language social credit system English digital governance English governance and regulation English chinese administrative law English moral engineering English assessment-driven regulation English trustworthiness assessment English law and society in china English regulatory shaming English automated decision-making English
Date of oral exam:	4 May 2026
Referee:	Name Academic Title Ahl, Björn Prof. Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/80615