By Carl F. Minzner, February 8, 2012
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This article analyzes China’s effort to revive pre-1978 court mediation practices in an effort to counteract some of the legal reforms implemented during the 1980’s and 90’s. Although this move away from litigation is similar to current trends in other countries that author concludes that within China other factors, such as traditional top-down authority and social stability concerns, are playing a significant role. In light of these developments the author argues that China’s current course may have severe long-term consequences and that scholars should be paying less attention to the formal structure of China’s legal system and more attention to how it actually operates.
