We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Legal commensuration is a complex mechanism of valuation. Its complexity has much to do with the relational nature of the monetary exchange involved between parties in the litigational context. The chapter offers a framework to understand its process and outcome by focusing on the institutional and cultural logics of the practice. The criminal reconciliation process in China is used as a real-world empirical illustration. Drawing mainly on data collected from fieldwork investigation of two basic-level courts, this chapter identifies two factors that affect the process and outcome of legal commensuration: institutional interests favouring reconciliation and cultural meaning of money. Political considerations play a decisive role in incentivising judges to facilitate a settlement. The cultural meanings of money serve as another factor shaping the outcome of reconciliation. In particular, blood money is valued both for its practical certainty and its symbolic value as a token of apology. Through a brief comparison of the Chinese and US systems, the chapter shows that this framework represents a step towards a more systematic and theoretical conception of legal commensuration.
Recommend this
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.