Abstract: The provisions about the stability capacity of a member with the slender section have not been provided in Chinese Code for Design of Steel Structures (GB50017—2003). In order to solve this problem, in this paper, the classical theory analysis was reviewed and several steel design codes at home and aboard were summarized. Three methodologies such as effective width method (EWM), direct strength method (DSM) and effective section method (ESM), were emphasized and detailed comparisons among them were presented. Some suggestions for further research topics were proposed as follows: the interactions between local buckling and global buckling, the distortion buckling of cold formed steel members, how to control width-to-thickness ratio of components and plastic hinges of members efficiently in seismic design, and general principles in revising the Code for Design of Steel Structures, etc.