Supreme Courts in Transition in China and the West
Adjudication at the Service of Public Goals
This edited volume looks at supreme courts in China
and the West. It examines the differences and similarities between the Supreme
People’s Court of Mainland China and those that follow Western models. It also
offers a comparative study of a selection of supreme courts in Europe and Latin
America.
The contributors argue that the Supreme Courts should
give guidance to the development of the law and provide legal unity. For China,
the Chinese author argues, that therefore there should be more emphasis on the
procedure for reopening cases. The chapters on Western-style supreme courts
argue that there should be adequate access filters; the procedure of reopening
cases is considered to be problematic from the perspective of the finality of
the administration of justice.
In addition, the authors discuss measures that allow
supreme courts in both regions to deal with their existing caseload, to reduce
this caseload, and to avoid divergences in the case law of the supreme
court.
This volume offers ideas that will help supreme courts
in both the East and the West to remove unmanageable caseloads. As a result,
these courts will be better able to assist in the interpretation and
clarification of the law, to provide for legal unity, and to give guidance to
the development of the law.
