Chinese Justice Civil Dispute Resolution in Contemporary China

Author: Margaret Y. K. Woo; Mary E. Gallagher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781107610620
Published In: February 2013
Format: Paperback , 432 pages
Jurisdiction: China ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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This volume analyzes whether China's thirty years of legal reform have taken root in Chinese society by examining how ordinary citizens are using the legal system in contemporary China. It is an interdisciplinary look at law in action and at legal institutions from the bottom up, that is, beginning with those at the ground level that are using and working in the legal system. It explores the emergent Chinese conception of justice - one that seeks to balance Chinese tradition, socialist legacies and the needs of the global market. Given the political dimension of dispute resolution in creating, settling and changing social norms, this volume contributes to a greater understanding of political and social change in China today and of the process of legal reform generally.

• Interdisciplinary, bringing together law scholars and social scientists working on Chinese legal reforms

• Each chapter is a rich empirical case of some aspect of legal reform

• Focuses on law-in-action, examining how law is used from the bottom up and how China's legal institutions structure this interaction

Tables and Figures	vii
Contributors	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Abbreviations	xv
Glossary	xvii
Introduction Margaret Y. K. Woo and Mary E. Gallagher	1
Part I: Legal Development and Institutional Tensions
1 From Mediatory to Adjudicatory Justice: The Limits of Civil Justice Reform in China Fu Hualing and Richard Cullen	25
2 Judicial Disciplinary Systems for Incorrectly Decided Cases: The Imperial Chinese Heritage Lives On Carl Minzner	58
3 Legalizing the Local State: Administrative “Legality” at China's Grassroots Douglas B. Grob	91
4 Economic Development and the Development of the Legal Profession in China Randall Peerenboom	114
Part II: Pu fa and the Dissemination of Law in the Chinese Context
5 The Impact of Nationalist and Maoist Legacies on Popular Trust in Legal Institutions Pierre F. Landry	139
6 Public Attitudes toward Official Justice in Beijing and Rural China Ethan Michelson and Benjamin L. Read	169
7 Users and Non-Users: Legal Experience and Its Effect on Legal Consciousness Mary E. Gallagher and Yuhua Wang	204
8 With or without the Law: The Changing Meaning of Ordinary Legal Work in China, 1979–2003 Sida Liu	234
Part III: Law from the Bottom Up
9 A Populist Threat to China's Courts? Benjamin L. Liebman	269
10 Dispute Resolution and China's Grassroots Legal Services Fu Yulin	314
11 The Constitution in the Courtroom: Constitutional Development and Civil Litigation in China Thomas E. Kellogg	340
Conclusion: Chinese Justice from the Bottom Up Margaret Y. K. Woo	380
Index	403

Margaret Y. K. Woo
Northeastern University, Boston

Mary E. Gallagher
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

'Complementing the burgeoning scholarship on Chinese law and legal institutions, Woo and Gallagher's book takes on the formidable task of presenting an interdisciplinary inquiry into how contemporary Chinese law and legal institutions work to resolve civil disputes. The result is a well-crafted volume … Woo and Gallagher's book succeeds in its objective by capturing an unprecedented snapshot of Chinese law on the ground, taking the reader inside legal institutions as they work to resolve civil disputes.' Cambridge Law Journal