Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T14:40:03.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mismatched Discourses in the Petition Offices of Chinese Courts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Xin He  and
Yuqing Feng
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Based on participation observations and interviews with petitioners and petition officials in Chinese courts, this article analyzes how the petitioning discourse is organized and how it influences the dispute resolution process. It finds that the discourses between the petitioners and the petition officials are mismatched. The petitioners fight to frame their disputes in legal terms, while the petition officials use a “channeling discourse” to divert the petitioners to legal or extralegal institutions. The two types of discourse barely confront each other; nor are the substantive issues seriously debated. Since being channeled into other institutions does not resolve their disputes, petitioners start calling their petitioning experiences as injurious, blaming officials, and making new claims. Disputes are thus reproduced. The research sheds light on the petitioners’ legal consciousness and the operation of the petition system in China, and explores the contextual reasons why the phenomenon of mismatched discourses occurs in China.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , Winter 2016 , pp. 212 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We acknowledge the financial support of a GRF grant from the Hong Kong government. Kwai Ng and three anonymous reviewers of this journal provided invaluable comments for an earlier version of this article. We are most grateful to the petitioners and officials who kindly granted us interviews.

References

References

Barton, Allen, and Mendlovitz, Saul. 1960. The Experience of Injustice as a Research Problem. Journal of Legal Education 13:24–25.Google Scholar
BBC China. 2011. Zhongguo weiwen jingfei chaoguo guofang kaizhi [Chinese Stability Maintenance Budget Exceeds Defense Spending]. http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2011/03/110307_china_securityspending.shtml (accessed March 5, 2014).Google Scholar
Beijing Youth. 2013. Canji nanzi jichang yinbao “tu zha dan” [Disabled Man Detonated “Hand‐Made Bomb” in Beijing Airport]. http://bjyouth.ynet.com/3.1/1307/21/8151868.html (accessed March 5, 2014).Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1987. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Boxun News. 2014. Liaoningsheng Fengchengshi pohai fangmin ouda xingju zai bei jingshen bing [Petitioners Got Beaten Up, Imprisoned, and Declared Psychiatric Patients in Fengcheng, Liaoning]. http://www.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2014/01/201401061730.shtml#.Ut98pGSS3Jw (accessed March 5, 2014).Google Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2004. Managed Participation in China. Political Science Quarterly 119 (3): 425–51.Google Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2008. Social Conflicts and Modes of Action in China. China Journal 59:89–109.Google Scholar
China Daily. 2007. Complaint Bureau Busiest Office in Beijing. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-09/02/content_6142475.htm (accessed March 5, 2014).Google Scholar
China Labor Bulletin. 2007. A New Force for Social Justice in China. http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/node/50409 (accessed May 10, 2013).Google Scholar
Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch. 2013. Hunan fangmin bei jingshen bing zhe Peng Qingguo bei kou Beidaihe [Peng Qingguo Hunan Petitioner and So‐Called Psychiatric Patient Got Imprisoned at Beidaihe]. http://www.msguancha.com/a/lanmu4/2013/0817/8123.html (accessed March 5, 2014).Google Scholar
Comaroff, John L., and Roberts, Simon. 1981. Rules and Processes. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Conley, John M., and O'Barr, William M. 1990. Rules Versus Relationships: The Ethnography of Legal Discourse. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Conley, John M., and O'Barr, William M. 2005. Just Words: Law, Language and Power, 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, and Silbey, Susan S. 1998. The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Felstiner, William L. F., Abel, Richard, and Sarat, Austin. 1980–1981. The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes: Naming, Blaming, Claiming …. Law & Society Review 15 (3/4): 631–54.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1972. The Archaeology of Knowledge. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1980. Truth and Power. In Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, ed. Foucault, M., trans. C. Gordon, 109–33. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Mary. 2006. Mobilizing the Law in China: “Informed Disenchantment” and the Development of Legal Consciousness. Law & Society Review 40 (4): 783–816.Google Scholar
He, Xin, and Ng, Kwai Hang. 2013. Pragmatic Discourse and Gender Inequality in China. Law & Society Review 47 (2): 279–310.Google Scholar
He, Xin, Lungang, Wang and Su, Yang. 2013. Above the Roof, Beneath the Law: Perceived Justice Behind Disruptive Tactics of Migrant Wage Claimants in China. Law & Society Review 47 (4): 703–38.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Susan. 1998. Pronouncing and Persevering. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hou, Meng. 2011. Zuigao fayuan fangmin de xintai he biaoda [The Attitude and Expression of the SPC Petitioners]. Zhongwai Faxue [Peking University Law Journal] 3:48–59.Google Scholar
Huang, Philip. 2010. Chinese Civil Justice, Past and Present. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Andrew. 2009. Seeking Justice, Chinese Land in Secret Jails. New York Times, March 8, New York edition, A1.Google Scholar
Komesar, Neil K. 1997. Imperfect Alternatives. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Li, Lianjiang, Liu, Mingxing, and O'Brien, Kevin J. 2012. Petitioning Beijing: The High Tide of 2003–2006. China Quarterly 210:311–34.Google Scholar
Liebman, Benjamin L. 2009. Assessing China's Legal Reforms. Columbia Journal of Asian Law 23:17–33.Google Scholar
Luehrmann, Laura. 2003. Facing Citizen Complaints in China, 1951–1996. Asian Survey 43:845–66.Google Scholar
Mather, Lynn, and Yngvesson, Barbara. 1980–1981. Language, Audience, and the Transformation of Disputes. Law & Society Review 15 (3/4): 775–821.Google Scholar
Matoesian, Gregory M. 2001. Law and the Language of Identity. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael, and March, Tracey. 1995. Law and Everyday Forms of Resistance: A Socio‐ Political Assessment. Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 15:207–36.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle. 1990. Getting Justice and Getting Even. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mertz, Elizabeth. 2007. The Language of Law School: Learning to “Think Like a Lawyer.” New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Minpao. 2010. Fangmin bei jingshen bing shou daya [Petitioners are Declared Psychiatric Patients]. http://news.sina.com.hk/news/20101012/-1-1882225/1.html?rtext (accessed March 5, 2014).Google Scholar
Minzner, Carl. 2006. Xinfang: An Alternative to the Formal Chinese Judicial System. Stanford Journal of International Law 42:103–79.Google Scholar
Mullen, Paul, and Lester, Grant. 2006. Vexatious Litigants and Unusually Persistent Complainants and Petitioners: From Querulous Paranoia to Querulous Behaviour. Behavioral Sciences and the Law 24:333–49.Google Scholar
Ng, Kwai Hang. 2009. The Common Law in Two Voices: Language, Law, and the Postcolonial Dilemma of Hong Kong. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J., and Li, Lianjiang. 2004. Suing the Local State: Administrative Litigation in Rural China. China Journal 51:75–96.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J., and Li, Lianjiang. 2006. Rightful Resistance in Rural China. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Peerenboom, Randall. 2001. Globalization, Path Dependency and the Limits of Law: Administrative Law Reform and Rule of Law in the People's Republic of China. Berkeley Journal of International Law 19:161–264.Google Scholar
Peerenboom, Randall, and He, Xin. 2009. Dispute Resolution in China. East Asia Law Review 4:1–61.Google Scholar
Richland, Justin B. 2008. Arguing with Tradition: The Language of Law in Hopi Tribal Court. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sohu News. 2013. Xuezhe: weiwen jingfei ying zhuanhua wei xinfang jiuzhu jijin [Scholars: Stability Maintenance Budget Should Be Transformed into Petition Relief Fund]. http://news.sohu.com/20131017/n388344908.shtml (accessed March 5, 2014).Google Scholar
Southern Weekend. 2013. Guojia xinfangju shuju: 71% shangfang youli, 60% que yao chongfang [Statistics from State Bureau for Letters and Calls: 71% of Petitions are Reasonable, But 60% Have to Petition Again]. http://news.ifeng.com/shendu/nfzm/detail_2013_12/12/32065895_0.shtml (accessed March 5, 2014).Google Scholar
Thireau, Isabelle, and Hua, Linshan. 2003. The Moral Universe of Aggrieved Chinese Workers: Workers’ Appeals to Arbitration Committees and Letters and Visits Offices. China Journal 50:83–103.Google Scholar
Thireau, Isabelle, and Hua, Linshan. 2005. One Law, Two Interpretations: Mobilizing the Labor Law in Arbitration Committees and in Letters and Visits Offices. In Engaging the Law in China: State, Society, and Possibilities for Justice, ed. Diamant, N., Lubman, and, S. B. O'Brien, K. J., 84–107. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Trinch, Shonna. 2003. Latinas Narrative of Domestic Abuse. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Wei, Pan. 2003. Toward a Consultative Rule of Law Regime in China. Journal of Contemporary China 12:3–43.Google Scholar
Woo, Margaret Y. K., and Wang, Yaxin. 2005. Civil Justice in China: An Empirical Study of Courts in Three Provinces. American Journal of Comparative Law 53 (4): 911–40.Google Scholar
Ying, Xing. 2004. Zuowei teshu xingzheng jiuji de xinfang jiuji [The Xinfang Remedy: A Special Form of Administrative Relief]. Faxue Yanjiu [Jurisprudence Research] 3:58–71.Google Scholar
Yu, Jianrong. 2005. Zhongguo xinfang zhidu pipan [Criticisms of the Petition System in China]. Zhongguo Gaige [China Reform] 2:26–28.Google Scholar
Zhong, Yuming, and Guo, Bensheng. 2006. Shehui Maodun Xin Jinghao [New Tendency in Social Conflicts]. Liaowang [Outlook], October 16, 10–13.Google Scholar
Zhu, Rongji. 2013. Zhu Rongji on the Record: The Road to Reform: 1991–1997. Trans. June Mei. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar

Statutes Cited

Civil Procedural Law of PRC, issued by the National People's Congress, effective April 9, 1991.Google Scholar
Criminal Procedural Law of PRC, issued by the National People's Congress, effective July 1, 1979.Google Scholar