Law and Discretion in the Contemporary Chinese Courts

Abstract:     
This article examines the three types of judicial discretion that exists in any legal system – fact based discretion; self-interested discretion, and ideological discretion -- in the context of China. Through its procedural laws, the Chinese legal system demonstrated a continuing preference for informality and flexibility. While concept of supervision and the procedure of adjudication supervision are efforts to constrain fact-based and self-serving personal discretion, the concept of “supervision” is also a window to ensure ideological compliance in individual judicial work.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 35

Accepted Paper Series