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Of Judge Quota and Judicial Autonomy: An Enduring Professionalization Project in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2022

Ying Sun  and
Hualing Fu
Ying Sun*
Affiliation:
School of Law, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Hualing Fu
Affiliation:
School of Law, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. Email: hlfu@hku.hk.
*
Email: suny8@mail.sysu.edu.cn (corresponding author).
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Abstract

This article presents the findings of original research on “judge quota” reform. The reform's agenda was essentially aimed at professionalization: by edging out a given percentage of judges, only the better qualified judges would be re-appointed to create a more professionalized judiciary. A key component of the reform was to reduce the level and the intensity of both political and bureaucratic control over judges in adjudication and to decentralize judicial power to the rank-and-file judges, restoring individualized judging while enhancing judicial accountability. This article critically examines the potential and limits of the judge quota reform in the context of incremental legal reform in a party-state.

摘要

摘要

本文是关于法官员额制改革的原创性研究。员额制改革的本质是推进司法职业化。一定比例的法官被淘汰，通过考试考核者才被选任为员额法官，从而使审判职能与行政职能的岗位职责分工更加明确。员额制改革的关键一环是减轻法官在审理案件过程中所受到的来自政治和官僚的控制和干扰，将审判权下放给主审法官，在法院内部去行政化的同时加强司法责任制。本文探讨了中国共产党领导的渐进式法治进程的大背景下法官员额制改革的潜力和限度。

Keywords

judicial reformquota judgelegalityjudicial autonomyprofessionalismChina司法改革员额法官合法性裁判自主职业化中国
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 251 , September 2022 , pp. 866 - 887
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

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