In 2011 and 2012, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) published its first “guiding cases.” Guiding cases serve as decision-making models that must be taken into account by lower courts when deciding ...similar cases. This study argues that the establishment of a national formal legal mechanism to improve consistency in adjudication across jurisdictions and geographical boundaries will strengthen judicial professionalism. The guiding cases system provides the SPC with an instrument to steer adjudication in lower courts discreetly, thereby allowing it to exercise significant influence over legal developments. Given the complexity of cases, compared to law set out in statute, non-lawyers may have tremendous difficulty in understanding and assessing the effects of guiding cases; this in turn acts as a protective mechanism against extra-legal interference. The reform is an example of the SPC's delicate manoeuvring in order to retain judicial professionalism in a hostile yet politically conservative environment. It reflects an attempt by the SPC to strengthen its position vis-à-vis other actors of the party-state and to consolidate the judiciary's function as an adjudicative institution that works on the basis of formal legal mechanisms.
The introduction of a unified judicial examination marked an important step toward legal professionalization in China. Following a conservative turn in judicial reforms between 2007 and 2012, ...political content was included in the exam. On the basis of exam texts, model answers, and legal and other documents, this article investigates the content of political questions on the judicial exam. The analysis of exam questions reveals the party-state’s perception of the law-politics nexus and the significance of the political content of the exam for aspiring legal professionals. Candidates learn that they have to grasp the current party ideology in order to be able to deliver the correct interpretation of the law for serving the “overall political situation.” The article argues that the examination questions imply that political guidelines serve as an instrument for fine-tuning the application of law according to new policy aims as well as social and economic change.
This special issue arises from a symposium jointly organized by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Jilin University, and the University of Cologne and held in Hong Kong in October 2017.
This study focuses on the Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council in order to investigate the impact of China's official human rights position on international human ...rights discourses. China's Review, including its National Report, the Chinese government's reactions to statements and recommendations on its domestic human rights situation, as well as its statements and recommendations on other states under review are investigated in order to find out whether China is able to project successfully its official human rights view on the international arena.
Global constitutionalism and the Chinese concept of a community of common destiny for mankind provide different master narratives for the future development of the international legal order. This ...study analyses Chinese legal scholarship and Chinese government statements that relate to elements of global constitutionalism and the community of common destiny in order to identify the values and structures of future international law envisaged by China. We argue that although authors and government statements refute or re-interpret the underlying values of global constitutionalism such as the rule of law, democracy and human rights, Chinese scholarship embraces the idea of a higher order of international norms that derive from the common values of the international community. However, the Chinese government's position on jus cogens appears to reject a version of peremptory norms that empower non-state actors. We find that he principle of universal security and the principle of openness and inclusiveness that form part of the community of common destiny concept extend to international law the important regime-specific domestic doctrines of social stability and national conditions. In the legal interpretation of the community of common destiny concept, this study finds evidence of a dialectical process of norm-making that consists of both a confirmation of the normative status quo and the pursuit of far-reaching changes to the international legal order.
Deficits in attention and arousal play a major role in the clinical presentation of hepatic encephalopathy. Attention deficits are also the main components of minimal hepatic encephalopathy. The ...present paper summarizes some findings about attentional and memory dysfunction in hepatic encephalopathy, with reference to basic knowledge about normal attention and memory function and their cerebral representation.
Over the past two decades courts in China have undergone tremendous changes as they developed into more professional and efficient institutions for solving legal disputes. Whereas the literature has ...described the empowerment of Chinese courts as “intrinsically local,” we turn to the national level and explore how the development of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) relates to the global phenomenon of a “judicialization of authoritarian politics.” Drawing on legal documents and secondary literature, the study argues that the SPC has extended its powers gradually and in a non-confrontational manner into the realms of other constitutional actors. The court has expanded its competences primarily through its legislative function and its substantial input into procedural law reforms. As the court serves core interests of the party, the empowerment appears rather instrumentalist and reversible. However, the SPC is in a position to promote its own agenda by indicating deference to core party goals and,
in exchange, being granted certain leeway to pursue its institutional interests.
This study investigates the interrelation of outer appearance and spatial configuration of modern Chinese court buildings with the party-state’s strategy of building regime legitimacy. The spatial ...element of this relation is explored in four different court buildings in Kunming, Chongqing, Shanghai and Xi’an. It is argued that court buildings contribute to the empowerment of individuals who appear as parties in trials. Courthouses also facilitate the courts’ function of exercising social control and the application of an instrumentalist approach to the principle of public trials. Both the grounding of court buildings in the past and their compliance with international models of a modern independent judiciary are aspects of consolidating regime legitimacy.
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