THE REFORM OF THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM IN CHINA IS CONFRONTED WITH A CRUCIAL PERIOD OF STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITIES

On November 23, 2014, the Humanities and Social Sciences Forum of China, hosted by Renmin University of China and organized by Renmin Law School, was held in Yifu Conference Room of Renmin University of China. The theme of the forum is “China’s Rule of Law: Move Forward the Modernization of Regulatory Institutions and Regulatory Capacities of China.” The purpose of the forum is to further implement practices according to the spirits of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and to modernize the country’s regulatory institutions. Professor XIAO Yang, the former Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court of China, has delivered a keynote speech on “The Reform of the Judicial System in China Is Confronted with a Crucial Period of Strategic Opportunities.” He stated that currently China was experiencing a complicated and diversified period of transformation and that the rule of law should become a social consensus. To rule the country by law, first and foremost, it is critical to do so according to the Constitution; and to administer the country by law, it is essential to administer according to the Constitution. Good law and governance are the two basic aspects of the rule of law and should have a benign interaction in practice. Additionally, the top-level plans shall first be well-designed based upon the spirits of the Fourth Plenum and the constitutional rules, and then the judicial reforms shall be actively, smoothly, and gradually carried out according to the plans. This has become a new model of legal construction. Moreover, the relations among the various aspects shall be resolved correctly. Those aspects include the judicial systematic reforms and the working institutional reforms, the protection of judicial authority and the enhancement of supervision over governance, the relations among different interest groups from the long-term development perspective, and the systematic and cultural constructions of the law. Finally, he emphasized that the rule of law needed faith and dream and wished to see more young people to inherit the dream of the rule of law.     

THE RIGHT TO EQUAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS PRACTICE MODELS IN CHINA

As a holistic right, the right to equal development emphasizes equity of opportunities for development in economic, social, cultural and political fields among subjects of present and future generations at different regions. Right to equal development may receive theoretical support from ideas of social solidarity, global justice, inclusive growth and traditional culture of China. China engages in the realization of the right to equal development in five models, namely cooperation among local governments, interaction between public power and private rights, sustainable development, holistic development and government intervention.     

THE RIGHT TO MARRY AND THE SAN FRANCISCO EXPERIENCE

This article chronicles the issuance of marriage licenses to lesbian and gay couples in San Francisco in the winter of 2004. The article explores the political and legal landscape in the fight for the right to marry nationally and examines the current legal status of lesbian and gay couples in the country.     

MAGNA CARTA AND THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS

The 800th anniversary of Magna Carta has been marked by much pageantry and celebration. Some scholars have taken this opportunity to point out that the myth of Magna Carta is far greater than what the actual 1215 Charter managed to accomplish. Nevertheless, Magna Carta did make a meaningful and concrete contribution to due process in 1215, as shown by certain provisions that are seemingly overlooked by critics eager to downplay the Charter’s importance. This article highlights two lesser known clauses of Magna Carta that had real contemporary significance in guaranteeing the availability of jury trial for some categories of civil litigation. The ringing promises of Clauses 39 and 40 may have inspired great jurists and founders of nations, but the more humble Clauses 17 and 18 — specifying the proper location and manner of hearing certain civil cases — must also be taken into account in assessing the Charter’s importance.     

THE HUMAN RIGHT TO INFORMATION,THE ENVIRONMENT AND INFORMATION ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT: FROM THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION TO THE AARHUS CONVENTION

Citizen access to government-held information and the amelioration of environmental problems are considered statutory matters in the United States, but at the international level these are seen as fundamental human rights. In recent years two categories of human rights demanded by activists, the right to government information and the right to environmental protection, have converged into a new human right—the right to government information about the environment. The 1998 Aarhus Convention, binding in more than forty nations in Europe and Central Asia, is the first multilateral treaty to specifically denote a human right to government information about the environment. While the Aarhus Convention has some untested procedural difficulties and laborious bureaucratic requirements, the treaty can serve as a model for the world's nations at large, because citizen oversight of government actions toward the natural world is a powerful tool for those concerned about both the environment and government transparency.     

THE BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE: THE COURT ASSIGNMENT AND JUDICIAL SATISFACTION

A survey of 355 judges examined the differences in judicial satisfaction between those assigned to problem-solving courts—such as drug treatment and unified family—and judges in other more traditional assignments such as family law and criminal courts. The unified family court systems, like drug treatment courts, have generally adopted the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence. Significant differences were found on each of the three survey scales: (1) helpfulness, (2) attitude toward litigants, and (3) positive effects of assignment. The judges who were in the problem-solving courts (drug treatment and unified family court) scored higher on all three scales than those who were not (traditional family and criminal court). The group of problem-solving court judges consistently scored higher than the other group of judges, with the drug treatment court judges scoring the highest. The group of traditional criminal court and family court judges scored less positively, with the criminal court judges having the lowest scores. The problem-solving court judges were more likely to report believing that the role of the court should include helping litigants address the problems that brought them there and were more likely to observe positive changes in the litigants. They were also more likely to believe that litigants are motivated to change and are able to do so. They felt more respected by the litigants and were more likely to think that the litigants were grateful for help they received. The problem-solving court judges were also more likely to report being happy in their assignments and to believe that these assignments have a positive emotional effect on them.     

THE PRESS AND THE JUDICIARY： COURT AND JUDICIAL REPORTS IN THE PREss IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Western scholars have argued that image making and image management are a preoccupation of the judiciary. Images of the judiciary may take a variety of forms and be produced for kinds of audiences. One form of judicial image making and image management is live performances in the courtroom and other court settings. Another is the written judgment where the preoccupation is the style of the written text. Press and other mass media reports of judicial activity are another. The audience for judicial images is equally diverse, from fellow judges, lawyers in the courts and the wider legal community, the litigants before the courts to the executive, legislature and the public both in the courtroom and beyond. The image of the judiciary that is available to the public has a particular significance in Western rule of law democracies. As a general rule courts and the judiciary are required to operate in public and their activities must be open to public scrutiny. A recent policy manifestation of this goal is debated about confidence in the justice system and initiatives designed to improve confidence. In the majority of cases public scrutiny of judicial activity and public confidence in the judiciary relies upon the media. Objective and accurate press and media reports play a key role in shaping public understanding of the judiciary and generating or undermining confidence in that institution. Reports in regional and national newspapers have long been an important source of information, shaping public knowledge and facilitating public scrutiny of the justice system. In the UK, there is almost no scholarship on these representations past or present. The result is little known about the representation of the courts and the judiciary in press reports. Little is known about what the diligent reader of these reports can learn about judicial activity. The aim of this article is to take a first step towards changing that state of affairs. It uses a data set made up of 205 contemporary domestic newspaper reports of court and judi     

地役权与居住权问题 评《物权法草案》第十四、十五章

<正>一、关于地役权的规定(一)关于地役权的类型的问题《物权法草案》(以下简称《草案》)只规定了当事人通过契约设立的地役权,这种地役权在学理上被称为意定地役权。在大陆法系国家,除意定地役权之外,还承认有法定地役权的存在。之所以有法定地役权,主要是考虑到在许多情况下,需役地对供役地的利用有绝对的必要(比如说汲取生活用水),出于利益衡量的考虑,法律规定需役地的所有人直接依法取得对供役地的地役权,不需要取得供役地所有人的同意。法定地役权,由于依法而存在,完全排除了     

CONFIDENTIALITY,DUE PROCESS,AND JUDICIAL DISQUALIFICATION IN THE UNIFIED FAMILY COURT: REPORT TO THE HONORABLE STEPHANIE DOMITROVICH

To the extent that courts realize the pure one judge–one family notion of the unified family court—in which one judge handles all domestic relations, probate, juvenile dependency, juvenile delinquency, and domestic violence cases involving members of the same family—they encounter three potential legal barriers: confidentiality of court records in some of the cases, due process issues arising from the consideration of material from a related case file in which the parties to the current case may or may not be parties, and judicial disqualification arising from the judge's handling of a previous case involving the family. This article summarizes information obtained from a survey conducted for the Children and Family Law Committee of the National Conference of State Trial Judges, of courts in sixteen states, to learn how they have resolved these legal issues.     

STUDY ON THE CHALLENGES AND PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES TO REHABILITATION IN CHINA

Obtaining effective rehabilitation and gaining access to full development services are fundamental for children with disabilities to fully participate in society and achieve social inclusion. A disabled child’s right to rehabilitation is specially protected by law in China and internationally. Chinese law specifically provides that the State shall ensure the enjoyment of the right of children with disabilities to rehabilitation services. This study shows that in the last five years, the rehabilitation services for children with disabilities are generally improved. But due to the incomplete protection mechanism, the right of children with disabilities to rehabilitation still could not be fully realized. This article concludes that the rehabilitation situation of children with disabilities in China presents the general feature of lacking of opportunities and structural imbalance. The Chinese government should take more responsibility to improve the rehabilitation system for children with disabilities. Specifically, the Chinese government should undertake the obligations as stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to provide rehabilitation services for all children with disabilities. To ensure the effective implementation of the right of children with different disabilities in different areas, China shall improve the rehabilitation legal system, establish an urban-rural integral rehabilitation system, enlarge financial invest and increase professional level of rehabilitation staff.