The Judicial System and Reform in Post-Mao China Stumbling Towards Justice

This comprehensive study examines the development and changing characteristics of the judicial system and reform process over the past three decades in China. As the role of courts in society has increased so too has the amount of public complaints about the judiciary. At the same time, political control over the judiciary has retained its tight-grip. The shortcomings of the contemporary system, such as institutional deficiencies, shocking cases of injustice and cases of serious judicial corruption, are deemed quite appalling by an international audience. Using a combination of traditional modes of legal analysis, case studies, and empirical research, this study reflects upon the complex progress that China has made, and continues to make, towards the modernisation of its judicial system. Li offers a better understanding on how the judicial system has transformed and what challenges lay ahead for further enhancement. This book is unique in providing both the breadth of coverage and yet the substantive details of the most fundamental as well as controversial subjects concerning the operation of the courts in China.

Yuwen Li is a Professor of Chinese Law and the Director of the Erasmus China Law Centre at the Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. She holds a BA in Chinese Law from Peking University, an MA in International Law and International Relations from the Institute of Social Studies, and a PhD in International Law from Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Since 2001, she has acted as co-director of a number of legal collaborative projects with numerous Chinese institutions, including the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the National Judges College, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Law School of Wuhan University. Currently, she is supervising a number of Chinese PhD candidates who are writing on various legal topics from comparative perspectives. She is also on the panel list of Arbitrators on the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration in the PRC. She has published extensively on various topics of Chinese law.