Chinese Justice: Civil Dispute Resolution in Contemporary China

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Tables......Page 9
Figures......Page 10
Contributors......Page 13
Acknowledgments......Page 15
Abbreviations......Page 17
Glossary......Page 19
Introduction......Page 27
Legal development and institutional tensions......Page 33
PU FA and the dissemination of law in the chinese context......Page 36
Law from the bottom up......Page 41
Part I: Legal Development and Institutional Tensions......Page 49
Introduction......Page 51
I. Civil disputes and the autonomy of civil justice......Page 52
The Paradigm of Civil Justice......Page 54
A New Generation......Page 56
Attack on Mediation......Page 59
The Reform of Court Mediation......Page 63
III. Xiao yang's judicial reforms......Page 65
IV. Disputes, stability, and the politicization of the courts......Page 69
Judicial Effectiveness......Page 70
Judicial Responsiveness......Page 73
V. Mediation in a harmonious society......Page 74
VI. Conclusion......Page 80
Introduction......Page 84
I. Legal framework of judicial disciplinary systems......Page 86
II. Disciplinary systems in local chinese courts......Page 89
A. Judicial Responsibility Systems......Page 90
B. Liability for Legal Error......Page 93
C. Collective Liability for Errors......Page 98
III. Practical effects of responsibility systems for incorrectly decided cases......Page 100
IV. Roots of responsibility systems for incorrectly decided cases......Page 106
V. Analysis of judicial responsibility systems......Page 111
3 Legalizing the Local State: Administrative “Legality” at China's Grassroots......Page 117
I. Puzzles......Page 120
Overview of Local-Level Rule Making in China......Page 122
III. Mediating role......Page 127
Selection Effects......Page 130
Sequence Matters: Reconsideration and Litigation......Page 133
Hierarchical Effects......Page 134
Challenges......Page 135
V. Institutional rivalry as a driver of legal development......Page 136
VI. Conclusion......Page 138
4 Economic Development and the Development of the Legal Profession in China......Page 140
Development of the Legal Profession and Legal Complex......Page 143
Strong Correlation between Economic Development and Development of the Legal Profession and Legal System......Page 144
Oversupply of Lawyers?......Page 148
Are Lawyers Paid Too Little?......Page 152
Elite Firms......Page 153
Foreign Firms and Their Relationship with Domestic Firms......Page 156
III. Conclusion......Page 157
Part II: Pu fa and the Dissemination of Law in the Chinese Context......Page 163
5 The Impact of Nationalist and Maoist Legacies on Popular Trust in Legal Institutions......Page 165
Nationalist Legacies......Page 167
Maoist Legacies......Page 168
Mass perceptions of legal institutions in china......Page 170
The ILRC Survey......Page 171
Local Histories since 1949: Using County Gazetteers......Page 172
Contemporary trust in legal institutions......Page 175
Measuring the Importance of County-Level Effects......Page 177
Measuring Institutional Diversity at the County Level......Page 180
Causal mechanisms at the individual level......Page 183
Respondents’ Exposure to the County......Page 184
Media Exposure......Page 186
Multivariate analysis of trust in courts......Page 189
Conclusions......Page 193
6 Public Attitudes toward Official Justice in Beijing and Rural China......Page 195
The surveys......Page 198
Upbeat general perceptions of official justice......Page 201
Downbeat encounters with official justice......Page 203
Explaining the incongruity of upbeat perceptions and downbeat encounters......Page 208
Implications and conclusions......Page 219
Appendix......Page 224
7 Users and Non-Users: Legal Experience and Its Effect on Legal Consciousness......Page 230
Labor conflict and the dispute “pyramid”......Page 231
Comparing users and non-users......Page 234
Legal Knowledge: How Well Do I Know the Law?......Page 239
Internal Efficacy: How Well Can I Work the Law?......Page 241
External Efficacy: How Well Does the Law Work?......Page 243
Comparing disputants......Page 246
Disputant Differences: The Role of Political Identity......Page 248
Jiang's Experience at the Shanghai Aircraft Factory......Page 251
Trade-Union Chairwoman Zhou's Disappointment......Page 252
Wei's Experience at the Foreign Supermarket......Page 253
Liao's Experience in a Japanese Company......Page 254
Migrant Worker Zhang's Dispute in Wuxi......Page 255
Goal of Mobilization: Strategic versus Expressive......Page 256
Mobilization Discourse: Universalism versus Particularism......Page 257
Conclusion......Page 258
8 With or without the Law: The Changing Meaning of Ordinary Legal Work in China, 1979–2003......Page 260
The legal system and everyday life: theoretical perspectives......Page 262
The legal-advice column: a twenty-five-year overview......Page 266
Family and Inheritance......Page 275
Debts and Loans......Page 280
Labor Disputes......Page 284
Conclusion......Page 288
Reply......Page 291
Part III: Law from the Bottom Up......Page 293
9 A Populist Threat to China’s Courts?......Page 295
Existing Literature......Page 297
Letters, Visits, and China’s Courts......Page 300
Sources of Grievances......Page 306
Impact on the Courts......Page 312
Why Courts and Judges Care: Efforts to Manage Petitioning......Page 321
III. A populist threat?......Page 332
10 Dispute Resolution and China’s Grassroots Legal Services......Page 340
The rise and decline of grassroots legal-services offices......Page 342
“One Group of Personnel with Three Names”......Page 346
Grassroots Legal-Services Offices and Law Firms......Page 348
Grassroots Legal-Services Offices in Site A of Hubei Province......Page 349
Social Assessment of Grassroots Legal-Services Offices and Legal-Service Workers......Page 352
The Relationship between Grassroots Legal-Services Offices, Public Security, and the People’s Courts......Page 354
Grassroots Legal Services in County C in Shanxi Province......Page 356
Some preliminary conclusions......Page 360
11 The Constitution in the Courtroom: Constitutional Development and Civil Litigation in China......Page 366
1. The current framework: keeping the courts out?......Page 369
1.1. Judicial Authority Over the Constitution......Page 372
2.1. What Is “Judicialization of the Constitution?”......Page 373
2.2. Alternative Arguments......Page 378
2.3. Judicialization in Practice: Early Cases......Page 380
3. An abortive breakthrough: the qi yuling case......Page 384
4. Case study: the zhang xianzhu case and hepatitis b litigation......Page 390
4.1. The Zhang Xianzhu Case......Page 393
4.2. After Zhang: Legislation, Litigation, and Social Awareness......Page 398
5. Conclusion: further barriers ahead?......Page 402
Conclusion: Chinese Justice from the Bottom Up......Page 406
Institutional dynamics, legal culture, and historical legacy......Page 410
Historical context or historical determinism?......Page 412
Legal culture as shaped by actual experiences......Page 414
Legal technocrats or legal professionals?......Page 417
Thirty years of chinese legal reforms (1979–2009)......Page 424
Index......Page 429