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2 - Halfway Home and a Long Way to Go

China's Rule of Law Evolution and the Global Road to Judicial Independence, Judicial Impartiality, and Judicial Integrity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Keith E. Henderson
Edited by
Randall Peerenboom
Randall Peerenboom
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Victoria
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Summary

This chapter focuses on an important issue under intense debate within many circles in China – the independence, impartiality, and integrity of the judiciary. The outcome of this debate has significant implications for China's future, for international judicial cooperation on a range of fronts, and for globalizing the rule of law in the developing world, where China has an ever-growing interest and influence.

China will not likely make the historic cultural, social, and legal transformation from the rule of man to the rule of law or realize her full economic and political potential over the long term without enhancing the independence, impartiality, integrity, and capacity of the judiciary. Global experience demonstrates that an independent judiciary is central to rule of law, and that it serves a number of important mutually supportive purposes, including: (i) safeguarding and enforcing people's property rights and human rights; (ii) resolving economic and political disputes; (iii) promoting international judicial cooperation fairly and predictably; (iv) addressing, mitigating, and preventing judicial and governmental corruption; (v) promoting social justice and social harmony; and (vi) promoting national and international political legitimacy. Because there are other institutional mechanisms in some countries that perform some of these essential tasks, particularly at the local and informal levels, most developing countries today are trying to create an independent judiciary with integrity as one of their long-term objectives. China is no exception.

Type
Chapter
Information
Judicial Independence in China
Lessons for Global Rule of Law Promotion
 , pp. 23 - 36
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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