Chinese Legal Reforms: Transformations in a Decade (Chinese and Comparative Law Series, 12)

Contents
Preface
	Referencing
	Status of the Law
	Acknowledgement
Figures and Tables
	Figures
	Tables
Laws
Regulations and other Policy Documents
Cases
1 Introduction: A Decade of Transformation of Chinese Law
	1 Socialist Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics
	2 Difficulty in Understanding Chinese Legal Reforms
	3 The Rationale and Approach in This Book
	4 Chapter Overview
2 The National People’s Congress and the Constitution
	1 Overview of People’s Congresses
	2 Terminology of Chinese Legislation
		2.1 The Constitution
		2.2 Laws
		2.3 Administrative Regulations
		2.4 Administrative Rules and Local Administrative Rules
		2.5 Local Regulations
		2.6 Autonomous Regulations
		2.7 Other
	3 The Evolving Attitude towards the Constitution and Legislation
		3.1 Legislative Conflict
		3.2 ‘Benign Violation of the Constitution’
		3.3 Local Legislation and Policy Experimentation
	4 Understanding the National People’s Congress
		4.1 ‘Rubber Stamp’ Parliament and the ‘Taxation Set by Law’ Principle
		4.2 Tax Rate and the 2015 Amendments to the Legislation Law
		4.3 Analogies of the Functions of the People’s Congress
		4.4 Consultative Democracy, Deliberative Authoritarianism, and ‘Whole-Process People’s Democracy’
	5 The Communist Party and the 2018 Constitutional Amendments
		5.1 Theoretical Explanations of the Role of the Communist Party
		5.2 2018 Amendments to the Constitution
		5.3 Supervision as a New Constitutional Power
	6 Understanding the Legislature and the Constitution in the Chinese Context
3 The Court on the Rise
	1 Overview of the Court Structure
	2 Reforms in Local Courts
		2.1 Local Courts and ‘Tiao-Kuai’
		2.2 Unified Administration of Personnel, Finance, and Assets at Provincial Level
		2.3 Practical and Doctrinal Challenges to the Reform
		2.4 Checks and Influence on Officials and Local Government
	3 Reforms by the Supreme People’s Court
		3.1 Institutional Reforms of the Supreme People’s Court
		3.2 Retrials
		3.3 Systemic Reforms Promoted by the Supreme People’s Court
	4 Criticisms, Constraints, and Concerns of the Reforms
4 The Emerging Case Law System
	1 Pre-reform Context and Terminology
	2 Components of the Current Adaptation to a System of Case Law
		2.1 China Judgments Online
		2.2 The System of Case Guidance and the System of Guiding Cases
		2.3 Mandatory Search of ‘Similar Cases’
	3 Critical Analysis of the Emerging Case Law System
		3.1 The Administrative Nature of Chinese ‘Case Law’ and Its Advantages
		3.2 Weaknesses and Difficulties of the Current System
	4 Implications of the System of Case Law
		4.1 Judicial Practice and the Influence of the Court
		4.2 Study of Chinese law
5 Judiciary under Pressure
	1 Judicial Independence, Judicial Competence and Adjudication Committees
	2 Quota Judge Reforms
		2.1 Reforms Implemented 2014–2017
		2.2 Implications of the Reform
	3 Mobility of Judges and Reforms for Appointment of Judges to Higher Courts
	4 Competition, Workload, Prestige and Status of the Judiciary
		4.1 Workload of Judges
		4.2 Judicial Accountability
		4.3 Lack of Prestige and Protection
		4.4 Restrictions on Change of Profession
	5 The Power Balance of the Chinese Court and Judges
6 The Expanding Procuratorate
	1 Overview of the People’s Procuratorate
	2 Changing Nature of Procuratorial Work
		2.1 Arrest Approval and Prosecutions
		2.2 Loss of Investigative Powers
	3 Four Major Categories of Procuratorial Work
		3.1 Criminal Procuratorial Work
		3.2 Civil Procuratorial Work
		3.3 Administrative Procuratorial Work
		3.4 Public Interest Litigation Procuratorial Work
	4 Aspects of the Expanding Procuratorate
		4.1 The Changing Mentality of Criminal Prosecution
		4.2 Case-Instance Ratio
		4.3 Protests – the Method and Conception of Legal Supervision
		4.4 Public Interest Litigation
	5 The Evolving Roles of the Procuratorate
7 Local Government and Administrative Law
	1 Administrative Reconsideration
		1.1 Overview
		1.2 Administrative Reconsideration Organs and Personnel
		1.3 Process and Decisions of Administrative Reconsideration
		1.4 Relationship with Administrative Litigation
		1.5 Analysis and Pending Legislative Changes
	2 Administrative Litigation
		2.1 Number of Cases and Outcome
		2.2 Expansion of the Scope of Administrative Litigation
		2.3 Responding to Administrative Litigation
	3 Analysing Chinese Administrative Law and Government
8 Lawyers and Legal Education
	1 Overview of the Growing Legal Profession
		1.1 Number of Lawyers (1995–2021)
		1.2 Percentage of Legal Representation and Caseload for Lawyers
	2 Interpreting Choices and Effects of Lawyer Representation
		2.1 Legal Aid and ‘Full Coverage’ of Criminal Defence Lawyers
		2.2 Empirical Analyses of Legal Representation
	3 Litigation Costs
		3.1 Court Fees
		3.2 Lawyers’ Fees
	4 Restrictions of the Profession
	5 Legal Education
9 Conclusion: Understanding Chinese Law in the Contemporary World
	1 A Decade of Transformation of Chinese Law
	2 Analysing Policies and Reforms
	3 Disappointment in Chinese Legal Reforms
	4 Understanding Chinese Law and Legal Reforms in the Contemporary World
	5 Final Thoughts
Bibliography
Bibliography of Chinese books and articles
Index