1

Courts and the Party-state

• Courts beholden to local party-state– No tenure for judges– Local government controls funding– Local party committee and party political-legal

committee (政法委员会 )• Have influence over

– Court personnel

(technically People’s Congress authority of personnel)– Acceptance of cases– Handling of cases

2

                                                                                   

新华社记者 樊如钧 摄 本报北京 12月 25 日电 （记者石国胜、王比学）中共中央总书记、国家主席、中央军委主席胡锦涛 25日上午在人民大会堂同全国政法工作会议代表和全国大法官、大检察官座谈。他强调，必须从中国特色社会主义事业发展全局的高度，进一步提高对做好政法工作重要性和紧迫性的认识，准确认识和把握政法工作的性质和职责，通过扎扎实实的努力，不断开创政法工作新局面，为全面建设小康社会、加快推进社会主义

现代化提供强有力的政法保障。 中共中央政治局常委、全国人大常委会委员长吴邦国，中共中央政治局常委、国务院总理温家宝，中共中央政治局常委、中央书记处书记习近平出席座谈会。中共中央政治局常委、中央政法委书记周永康主持。 胡锦涛强调，政法事业是中国特色社会主义事业的重要组成部分，必须随着中国特色社会主义事业发展而发展；政法工作是党和国家工作的重要组成部分，必须在党和国家工作大局下开展，为党和国家工作大局服务。切实维护党的执政地位，切实维护国家安全，切实维护人民权益，确保社会大局稳定，是政法战线的首要政治任务。

立足中国特色社会主义事业发展全局 扎扎实实开创我国政法工作新局面

《人民日报》 ( 2007-12-26 第 01 版 )

3

The Court Structure

• Court hierarchy – Supervisory responsibilities (contrast appellate courts, Lubman, 295)

• Merit/demerit system• Upham: “judges taking a ‘mistaken’ position face possible fines, loss of

bonus, or even dismissal”– Time limits on cases (not mediation—slow)– Overturned judgments (mediation—can’t be overturned)– Mediation rate (politically promoted)

• Supreme People’s Court (center)• Higher-level people’s courts (prov)• Intermediate-level people’s courts (prefect)

– May be court of first instance if• High-level gov dept involved• Large amount of money involved, etc.

• Basic-level people’s courts (county)• People’s Tribunals (some townships)

4

Courts and Judges

• 3,133 basic-level people’s courts (2004)• with 148,555 judges (法官 ),

– of which 91,099 were front-line judges (一线法官 ) (i.e. those hearing cases), – reduction of 13.07 percent from 2000 – may reflect a new emphasis on training and

appropriate educational attainment– Background

• 250,000 judges in 1997• Many transferred from military, party

5

Training of Judges

• Judicial training college established 1997

• Judges Law 1995– Required college degree – Judges in place could acquire degree over

time1987 17% of judges had college degrees

1992 66.6% of judges had college degrees

Note: night school, party school phenomenon

6

Table 5: Expansion of Legal Education and Legal Professionals Graduates at the Bachelor's Level Philosophy Economics Law Education Literature History Sciences Engineering Agriculture Medicine Total Law Share

1994 2117 80981 17650 35234 92928 16794 87845 228922 27856 47090 637417 2.77 1995 2110 119042 23170 41898 115969 18117 100566 295839 32975 55711 805397 2.88 1996 1960 127018 25852 40620 120051 16423 97260 315005 33032 61417 838638 3.08 1997 1183 132988 28270 39595 116115 14559 90513 314418 30190 61239 829070 3.41 1998 1183 132900 29649 40716 119583 14179 92729 308574 28941 61379 829833 3.57 1999 1067 134258 31500 40271 120957 13374 90395 326180 28070 61545 847617 3.72 2000 916 159299 44124 42052 146997 13661 98200 354291 30370 59857 949767 4.65

Avg Growth -11.3 10.1 14.0 2.6 6.8 -2.9 1.6 6.4 1.2 3.5 5.9 Graduates at the Master's and Doctorate Levels Philosophy Economics Law Education Literature History Sciences Engineering Agriculture Medicine Total Law Share

1994 454 1967 1296 540 1575 506 5521 12463 945 2780 28047 4.62 1995 460 2165 1370 577 1607 593 6039 14675 1111 3280 31877 4.30 1996 581 3666 1864 736 2228 745 6646 17621 1418 4144 39649 4.70 1997 664 4988 2258 902 2584 926 7625 19918 1788 4886 46539 4.85 1998 659 4740 2385 893 2795 859 7473 20681 1715 4877 47077 5.07 1999 649 6302 3257 1008 3310 970 8251 23369 1949 5605 54670 5.96 2000 775 7308 3820 1221 3714 1026 8077 24378 2282 6166 58767 6.50

Avg Growth 7.9 20.6 16.7 12.4 13.0 10.6 5.6 10.1 13.4 12.1 11.1 Sources: 中国科技统计年鉴 China Statistical Yearbook on Science and Technology (Beijing: China Statistics Press, 2000), p. 9; 中国教育统计年鉴 Educational Statistics Yearbook of China (Beijing: People's Education Press, 2001), pp. 28, 40.

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Case Typology

• Administrative– Cases against government (ALL 1989)

• Civil (including economic)– Family law, debts, contracts, personal injury, land – Labor (separate division)

• Criminal • Enforcement court

– Handles applications for compulsory enforcement

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Table 1 Cases Accepted by Courts of First Instance

Economic

Civil

Admin-istrative

Criminal

1983 44,080 756,436 1984 85,796 838,307 1985 226,695 846,391 1986 322,153 989,409 299,720 1987 366,456 1,213,219 5,240 289,614 1988 508,965 1,455,130 8,573 313,306 1989 690,765 1,815,385 9,934 392,564 1990 588,143 1,851,897 13,006 459,656 1991 563,260 1,880,635 25,667 427,840 1992 652,150 1,948,786 27,125 422,991 1993 894,410 2,089,257 27,911 403,267 1994 1,053,701 2,383,764 35,083 482,927 1995 1,278,806 2,718,533 52,596 495,741 1996 1,519,793 3,093,995 79,966 618,826 1997 1,483,356 3,277,572 90,557 436,894 1998 1,455,215 3,375,069 98,463 482,164 1999 1,535,613 3,519,244 97,569 540,008 2000 1,297,843 3,412,259 85,760 560,432 2001 1,155,992 3,459,025 100,921 628,996

Avg growth 18.8 8.3 21.8 4.7

9

Perceptions of Judges

• Lawyer Dai on– Judges in Anxiang County, Hunan– Judge in Haidian District, Beijing

10

Debate/discussion

• Debate “Sending Law to the Countryside” (Frank Upham on Zhu Suli)

• Zhu: “native resources” Why?– Not because of

• Chinese tradition, • Asian values, • Social connections (guanxi 关系 )

– Rather• Institutional weakness

11

Debate/discussion

• Debate “Sending Law to the Countryside” (Frank Upham on Zhu Suli)– Judicial independence

• Why does Zhu support the role of adjudication committees?

• Why does Upham see this as problematic?

12

Debate/discussion

• “Situational justice” / “morality play”– Policeman Wang and college grad– Farmer who lost a leg

• Note the political backdrop– Local party leaders evaluated by their party

superiors on indicators of social stability• protests, stikes, demonstrations, violence in their

jurisdiction

is a basis for demerits

13

Debate/discussion

• Debate “Sending Law to the Countryside” (Frank Upham on Zhu Suli)– Meaning of judicial independence

• Why does Zhu support the role of adjudication committees?

– Low level of professional sophistication of many judges– Social, institutional support against local pressure on

judges Really promotes local judicial independence

• Why does Upham see this as problematic? Really a means of party control

14

Debate/discussion

• Debate “Sending Law to the Countryside” (Frank Upham on Zhu Suli)– Why does Zhu think demobilized military

officers make good judges? – Why does Upham or He Weifang see this as

problematic?

15

Debate/discussion

• Debate “Sending Law to the Countryside” (Frank Upham on Zhu Suli)– Why does Zhu think demobilized military

officers make good judges? – Why does Upham or He Weifang see this as

problematic?

16

Judicial mediation

• Judicial mediation vs. formal judgments– Problematic formal judgments

• Land disputes link to social stability• Sales non-payment dispute link to labor

– Contradictory trends• Data why?• New policy emphasis on mediation why?

17

Table 6: Disposition of Economic Contract Disputes by the Courts of First Instance (Share of Total)

Mediated by

Court Decided by

Court

Transferred to Relevant

Bureau Rejected Withdrawn Zhongjie Other Total 1983 79.3 5.5 4.2 8.5 2.4 100 1984 80.6 5.6 3.2 8.7 1.9 100 1985 81.8 5.7 3.1 8.5 0.9 100 1986 79.6 7.5 3.9 8.2 0.8 100 1987 77.3 9.5 2.8 9.6 0.8 100 1988 80.2 8.6 1.9 0.0 8.8 0.5 100 1989 76.8 10.5 2.0 0.0 10.2 0.5 100 1990 69.5 14.7 2.1 0.0 13.0 0.7 100 1991 61.6 20.0 2.2 0.0 14.7 1.5 100 1992 61.7 20.8 1.6 0.5 14.8 0.7 100 1993 63.1 19.5 1.5 0.3 14.9 0.6 100 1994 60.0 20.8 1.5 0.3 16.8 0.6 100 1995 57.7 22.1 1.3 0.3 17.9 0.6 100 1996 53.7 25.5 1.3 0.3 18.4 0.8 100 1997 49.9 29.1 1.5 0.4 18.3 0.8 100 1998 43.2 34.6 1.4 0.6 18.8 0.4 1.0 100 1999 41.3 35.5 0.0 0.8 19.3 0.0 3.1 100 2000 34.6 40.3 0.0 1.3 20.7 0.0 3.2 100 2001 30.8 43.8 0.0 1.4 21.3 0.0 2.7 100

Sources: 全国人民法院司法统计历史资料汇编 1949-1998 (民事部分) 北京：人民法院出版社, 2000); 中国法律年间, various years.

18

Enforcement

• Enforcement– Martin Shapiro (1981: 13) writes,

• In most societies courts have had only the most rudimentary enforcement mechanisms… Courts typically do not monitor compliance, and they re-intervene to exact compliance only at the request of one of the parties. The re-intervention often takes the form of a simple repetition of the previous order. The successful suitor even in a modern industrial society frequently finds that the decree is only the first in a long series of painful, expensive, and often inconclusive steps aimed at getting his remedy. Courts, we are repeatedly and rightly told, have neither the purse nor the sword.

19

Enforcement

• China—higher expectation of enforcement?

• Local protectionism

20

Discussion

• Define adjudication

• Bureaucratic rather than adjudicatory organs

21

Discussion

• Urban vs. rural norms Zhu (p. 8)

• Zhu: rural bargaining highly constrained; urban highly competitive, complete well-functioning markets (ask: then why courts at all?)

• Upham: this is a linear version of modernization theory

22

The Law and Development Movement

• Note areas of emphasis in international legal aid we’ve seen so far– Legislative drafting– Judicial training

Which is more valuable?

23

Table 4: Supply of Legal Services

Year Law Firms Lawyers Law Firms Lawyers (Units) (Individuals) (% Increase) (% Increase)

1997 8441 98902 1998 8946 101220 6.0 2.3 1999 9144 111433 2.2 10.1 2000 9541 117260 4.3 5.2 2001 10225 122585 7.2 4.5 2002 10873 136684 6.3 11.5

Avg Growth 4.3 5.5

Source: 中国法律年鉴 (2002:1253; 2003:1335).

24

• Legal profession– State supervised—not self-regulating

• Ministry of Justice– Administers bar exam, certifies lawyers, licenses firms– Exercises supervision of lawyers

• Bar associations (often headed by MoJ officials)

25

• Supply of lawyers and litigious cultures– Cultural or institutional? – Peng (2000:32) Japan, Taiwan, S. Korea “lawyerless

wonderlands”– China—2002 per capita income US $ 960 – Korea—2002 per capita income US $11,280– China—one lawyer for every 9,510 people – Korea—one lawyer for every 9,383 people.

– In 2004, Shanghai alone had more than 6,000 lawyers in 592 law firms, while Korea had 6,273 lawyers in 258 law firms nationwide

26

• Consulting a lawyer significant factor in “escalating” a dispute, e.g. litigating (Landry, RDI)

• Contrast Michelson: lawyers as gatekeepers– “Students of contemporary China have

uncritically assumed that lawyers open courtroom doors… Why are so few grievances transformed into legal claims?”

27

• Lawyers as a force for social change– Public interest lawyers

• Supreme People’s Procuratorate– Encourage local procurates to bring pilot cases in the “public interest”

» Henan: loss of state-owned assets, environmental pollution, market, industrial and administrative monopolies and the destruction of natural resources or public facilities

» arguably at odds with the standing requirements for civil litigation as stipulated in the Chinese Civil Procedure Code, but the procuracy and courts agreed to overlook

• Individual lawyers (Qiao Zhanxiang v. Ministry of Railways )– train price ticket increases during the Spring Festival, the biggest travel holiday on the Chinese

calendar, were in violation of the Price Control Law – hosted a local talk show answering callers’ questions on traffic law – Qiao lost his cases in Beijing Intermediate and High Courts, but won his case in the court of

public opinion. During the subsequent Spring Festival, the Ministry of Railways held a hearing on contemplated price increases.

– case selected to highlight the need for transparent administrative processes Titi Liu (UW) Jan 24th 12noon 317 Thomson

• NGOs (Beijing Univ. Law Dept’s Center for Women’s Law Stds and Legal Services C. David Lee, “Legal Reform in China: A Role for Nongovernmental Organizations,” Yale J. of

Int’l Law Vol. 25 (2000

– Lawyering in repressive states• Jane Winn (UW) and Tang-chi Yeh, “Advocating Democracy: The Role of Lawyers in

Taiwan's Political Transformation,” Law & Social Inquiry, Vol. 20, No. 2. (Spring, 1995), pp. 561-599.

– Civil law vs. common law system—fewer opportunities– Turn to opposition political party

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• Legal Aid– Regulations on Legal Aid by the State Council in 2003

• Duty of county-level governments• Narrow scope for qualifying for legal aid• No recourse for denial of legal aid• Private lawyers de facto compulsory provision of legal aid

– foreign donor activity • educated the National Legal Aid Center, the organization

charged by the Ministry of Justice with formulating legal aid policy, about legal aid systems in other countries.

– Non-governmental legal aid centers—Ford Fdn funding (as with Women’s Center, above)

29

Recourse against the State

• Administrative Litigation Law

• Petitioning