It started out late last year as an obscure case of academic plagiarism - former Peking University law professor Wang Tiancheng accused Wuhan University's Zhou Yezhong of copying ideas and tracts from his published papers on constitutional law.
But in a few months, the claims and counter-claims have sent shockwaves through the mainland's intelligentsia, denting reputations and leading to the temporary closure of a popular Beijing newspaper.
When the accusations are finally aired in the Beijing No2 Intermediate People's Court, it will be a case of the dissident versus the star legal professor. And this time, the man in the dock is a man who has advised people at the highest levels of the central government.
Dr Wang said that at first he had merely wanted an explanation and an apology. The professor, who was sacked from Peking University and jailed in 1992 for five years for joining a dissident party, published an open letter online in November claiming Professor Zhou had duplicated at least 33 points and 6,000 words in a book published last year with PhD student Dai Jitao .
Dr Wang said the ideas were lifted from papers he wrote dating back to 1999. 'Almost every line of his book contains some of my ideas, and the main structure, ideas and expressions are all similar to my papers. His book even copied a typographical error in my paper,' he said. In levelling the accusations, Dr Wang was attacking the reputation of one of the country's rising legal stars.
At 42, Professor Zhou is a leading jurist and holds a range of senior posts at Wuhan University. In December 2002, Professor Zhou was invited to Zhongnanhai to give a lecture on constitutional law to President and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao and the Politburo.