Procedural Justice and Judicial Reform

Author: Qi Shujie
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-11-01
Features: The Law Department of Xiamen University (now the School of Law) was established in 1926 and has gone through many hardships and vicissitudes. Since its revival in 1979, the School of Law has always attached importance to improving the teaching quality of litigation law while closely monitoring and actively participating in the development of China's litigation legal system and the discipline of litigation law. In the past decade, the faculty of the School of Law has published and authored numerous monographs, textbooks, and academic papers covering civil litigation, criminal litigation, administrative litigation, maritime litigation, arbitration systems, bankruptcy systems, comparative litigation systems between the mainland and Taiwan, and judicial reforms, which have had a significant impact on the legal academia. In 1999, with approval from the State Council Academic Degrees Office, Xiamen University began enrolling master's students in litigation law. In May 2001, to meet the needs of litigation law teaching and research, enhance academic research standards, promote the development of the litigation law discipline, and contribute to China's ongoing judicial reforms, I initiated the compilation of the "Xiamen University School of Law Series on Litigation Law." Inspired by the civil judicial reforms in the United Kingdom during the 1990s, we determined the theme of this series as "Access to Justice." The first series, focused on civil litigation law, includes eight titles: Civil Procedure Law, Research on Civil Judicial Reform, Special Topics in Civil Evidence Law, New Perspectives on Arbitration Law, British Evidence Law, ADR Principles and Practice, Enforcement Law, and Research on Bankruptcy Law. All eight titles were completed by June 2004. The first five books have been reprinted or revised, while the last three are scheduled for re printing or revision in early 2005. The publication of these books has garnered significant attention in the legal academia, received praise from experts and readers, and has been adopted as textbooks by several law schools. In September 2002, the British Council and the British Embassy in China sent a congratulatory letter, highly praising the publication of British Evidence Law. In 2003, New Perspectives on Arbitration Law won the Second Prize of the Fifth Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award of Xiamen City, and British Evidence Law won the Third Prize of the Fifth Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award of Fujian Province. The second series will build upon the writing style of the first series while introducing developments and innovations. To adapt to the new trends of China's judicial reforms, this series will focus on judicial systems and reforms, with a planned eight titles: Program Justice and Judicial Reform, New Perspectives on Notarization Systems, Research on Environmental Dispute Resolution Mechanisms, Civil Pre-trial Procedures, British Judicial System, American Judicial System, German Judicial System, and Civil Litigation Systems in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. These are expected to be completed within three years. Program Justice and Judicial Reform, as the first book of the second series, collects some of the author's papers written between 1997 and 2004 on the concepts of procedural justice, judicial system reforms, and improvements. The content covers civil litigation, evidence systems, enforcement, arbitration, ADR theory and practice, as well as local and international experiences in judicial reforms, reflecting the author's preliminary exploration and reflections in this field. The publication of this series has been supported by the School of Law of Xiamen University, Xiamen University Press, the Quanzhou Notary Public Office, the Xiamen Arbitration Commission, and the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection. My heartfelt gratitude is extended to all for their encouragement, support, and assistance. Despite our efforts, the limitations of our knowledge and capabilities are inevitable, and we sincerely welcome criticism and corrections from experts and readers.