Judicial Independence In China: Lessons For Global Rule Of Law Promotion

This page intentionally left blank judicial independence in china This volume challenges the conventional wisdom about judicial independence in China and its relationship to economic growth, rule of law, human rights protection, and democracy. The volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach that places China’s judicial reforms and the struggle to enhance the professionalism, authority, and independence of the judiciary within a broader comparative and developmental framework. Contributors debate the merits of international best practices and their applicability to China; provide new theoretical perspectives and empirical studies; and discuss civil, criminal, and administrative cases in urban and rural courts. This volume contributes to several fields, including law and development; the promotion of rule of law and good governance; globalization studies; neoinstitutionalism and studies of the judiciary; the emerging literature on judicial reforms in authoritarian regimes; Asian legal studies; and comparative law more generally. Randall Peerenboom, formerly a professor at UCLA Law School and Director of the Justice and Society Rule of Law in China Programme at the Oxford Foundation for Law, is currently Associate Fellow of the Oxford University Center for Socio-Legal Studies and a law professor at La Trobe University. He has been a consultant to the Asian Development Bank, Ford Foundation, UNDP, and other international organizations on legal reforms and rule of law in China and Asia. He is coeditor of The Hague Journal of Rule of Law. He is also a CIETAC arbitrator and frequently serves as an expert witness on Chinese legal issues. His recent books include China Modernizes: Threat to the West or Model for the Rest? (2007), Regulation in Asia (2009), Human Rights in Asia (2006), Asian Discourses of Rule of Law (2004), and China’s Long March toward Rule of Law (2002). Judicial Independence in China lessons for global rule of law promotion Edited by RANDALL PEERENBOOM La Trobe University CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521190268 © Cambridge University Press 2010 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2009 ISBN-13 978-0-511-65846-4 eBook (NetLibrary) ISBN-13 978-0-521-19026-8 Hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-13734-8