你知道吗？


股神巴菲特只在网上购买三种商品：书籍、桥牌和华尔街日报网络版(cn.WSJ.com)

Thirty Years of Chinese Legal Reform
2008年 12月 09日 09:23
As the 30-year anniversary of China's reform and opening draws near, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong Thursday hosted China legal expert extraordinaire Jerome Cohen (full bio here), who discussed the development of China's legal system over the last three decades and its future.

Below are some highlights from the talk:

China's Legal System in 1978

Thirty years ago if you looked around it was hard to find any of the conventional indicia in China of what constitutes a legal system. You couldn't find much legislation＃there was nothing in terms of guiding norms, there were no relevant international agreements＃. The courts were in shambles after the Cultural Revolution and the legal profession was demolished＃.Bookstores had no sections for law. It was hard to say China had a legal system.

China's Legal System Today

Now thirty years later, we look and we find a vastly different formal and actual situation.

If you look at personnel, China now has roughly 200,000 judges＃. 160,000 procurators (prosecutors), 150,000 lawyers＃. And they have a legal education system that is growing 岸 maybe too fast 岸 with over 600 law departments and law schools cranking out several hundred thousand law graduates, and several hundred thousand people are taking the bar examination every year.

In addition to the lawyers, you have hundreds of thousands of people who are legal specialists, working as corporate counsel, working in local governments, as well as national government agencies of all kinds.

You have an interest group ＃that's promoting something called a credible rule of law [and] Western-style rule of law, at least in form.

The Future of China's Legal System

I think it is clear China has a legal system now, it functions. The question is: Is it going to fulfill the promise many people see in it of becoming gradually a Western-style system we could recognize as a functioning system, not only in theory but also in practice?

You could think that in these parlous economic times, law certainly isn't going to be＃ very high on the priority list of the Communist Party Politburo＃.But the fact is that law is more intimately linked to China's economic fate over the next couple of decades than is apparent.

The Politburo recognizes that. Last Friday the Politburo held a meeting in Beijing＃ to announce that the party is going to have further judicial reforms in order to satisfy the increasing demands of the masses as well as promote economic development. They recognize that China does not have sufficient checks and balances on police power. This facilitates arbitrary events and misconduct by the police. And they promise that they will initiate reforms that will create greater harmony which has been the general theme.

They don't give any details at this point but several things are clear: One is they are not going to follow, word for word, they say, the Western pattern. China will go its way. Second, what they will find, they say, is the continuing control of the Communist Party.

Judicial Reform With Chinese Characteristics

When we hear judicial reform, we think of many things in connection with China [such as judicial independence, fairer procedures, and a larger role for lawyers].

A major question about the courts that the leadership has to confront is what can the courts do? Can they accept all kinds of cases? Or can they only take non-sensitive cases?

Courts are open in principle to all kinds of claims but in practice present many obstacles, including sometimes not letting the lawyers participate. Right now there are new questions about [cases involving] earthquake victims, milk poisoning victims. Are the courts going to be open to them? The party has been dithering about that. We don't know the ultimate answer. We do know that lawyers who try to take part in assisting these victims have had difficulties.

One of the things to keep in mind is courts don't do everything very well＃. If you have new judges of limited competence or experience, maybe its good to have other agencies handle certain problems [as the U.S. did to deal with claims arising from the 9/11 terrorist attacks]. The problem in China is, if they aren't going to use the courts for various grievances ″ and those grievances are increasing by the day ″ they have to set up some substitute effective mechanisms for handling these problems. And while you hear a little lip service about helping the victims of the earthquake or helping the milk poisoning victims＃ there are severe questions of administration, compensation, fairness of hearing, et cetera.

But [the Western model of judicial reform] is not the only possibility. In China they have a different idea at the leadership level of what judicial reform is. Since a year ago, we've been seeing a new party line that has been enunciated about the courts: This is a return to the old party line that used to be called the 'mass line,' which was manifested in the pre-1949 liberated areas of China. In those simple days, in rural conditions, law was considered not very desirable ″ certainly not formalized law and certainly not courts to make formal decisions. Law should be used in a way to harmonize the masses, cases should be decided if at all possible through mediation ″ either in court or out of court ″ and the courts should be at one with the masses. Judges should not be very professionally trained, they should be people who are in tune with the ordinary common folk.

Now that's the line of the leadership, starting with Hu Jintao last December, [known as the 'three supremes'].

The Three Supremes

The three supremes are, in descending order: the party, society and＃ the constitution and the laws. The new supreme court president has said with respect to death penalty cases, for example, that the feelings of the masses are number one, when courts have to make decisions about whether people live or die. Number two is social conditions, and number three is the legal law. This has demoralized many professionally oriented members of this rising legal class [and they have been] subject to intensive political indoctrination in the theory of three supremes.

China's Legal and Economic Dilemmas

The Chinese leaders are stuck, they're stuck because＃ previous leaders have imported the institutions, the values the procedures of Western law, and yet they keep saying, at least three days a week, 'don't take these seriously.' In the meantime they have created rights consciousness among their people＃. And the underdeveloped half of China ″ those people who have not been winners in this fantastic economic modernization ″ have increasingly called the bluff. They're using the law as a weapon.

I think law is close to the economic crisis＃.. Lean years produce far more public protest than the fat years. Even during the times of great economic progress, there have been a fantastic number of public protests [in China], many of them violent. Now what is going to happen when millions and millions of people are out of work? And they don't have the kind of social support system that many countries give to unemployed people. Chinese have learned that collective action may be the only effective way to demonstrate the need for resolving their grievances＃ because the legal system has not developed the kinds of institutions necessary to process grievances.

This is the institutional challenge and what I worry about is [the leadership's habit of repression]. But we've seen repression alone will create a greater sense of injustice among the people. So instead of repression, I think they have to start risking ″ because it is a certain risk for China ″ to develop legitimate institutions for processing grievances. That means local elections, it certainly means some autonomy so courts can give fair and impartial decisions, it means effective alternatives to the courts, because if this doesn't happen, I think repression is not going to do the job, it's going to make things worse.

So that's the situation today thirty years after: Great progress in terms of legal norms. You have a legal system, but it's not a credible rule of law system, and that's not merely an academic matter for China. It could be a matter of the greatest importance and it certainly will have an impact on the evolving economic crisis.

Sky Canaves

本文网址:
[URL]
免费登录华尔街日报中文网络版(cn.WSJ.com)，阅读更多精彩报导

有好的建议？请和道琼斯公司北京办事处联系
电话：86-10-65814090
传真：86-10-65814089
电子邮件：Info.chinese@dowjones.com
本栏目文字内容归道琼斯公司所有，任何单位及个人未经许可，不得擅自转载使用
Copyright 2006 - 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

中国司法改革30年

2008年 12月 09日 09:23

中

国的改革开放即将走过30个年头，香港外国记者俱乐部(Foreign Correspondents' Club)上周四请中国法律专家孔杰融(Jerome Cohen)畅谈了中国司法体系过去30年来的发展及其未来。

以下是此次谈话的部分主要内容：

1978年的中国司法体系

30年前的中国，你很难在身边发现任何组成司法体系的常规印记。你看不到很多立法……没有任何指导原则的条款，没有相关的国际协议……。经过文化大革命之后，法院陷入瘫痪，司法职业受到了严重破坏……。书店没有法律门类的书。很难说中国拥有司法体系。

中国当今的司法体系

30年过去了，我们发现无论从形式上还是从实际情况上看都发生了很大的变化。

在人员方面，中国目前约有20万名法官，16万名检察官和15万名律师。中国的法律教育体系也在发展，而且可能发展速度太快了，全国600多个法学院和法律系每年能培养出数十万名法律毕业生，每年也有数十万人参加司法考试。

除律师外，还有数十万人从事法律工作，他们在企业中担任法律顾问、在当地政府部门以及各种类型的国家政府机构工作。

中国有了利益团体……这促进了所谓可信的法治和西方式的法治，至少在形式上如此。

中国司法体系的未来

我认为中国目前显然已经拥有了司法体系，并且这一体系正在发挥着职能。问题在于：它是否能够满足许多人的期望，即逐步成为我们心目中能够发挥职能的西方式的体系，不仅是从理论上而且是从实践中？

你可能会认为在目前严峻的经济形势下，司法可能不会成为中共中央政治局关注的主要问题。但事实是，今后几十年里司法与中国经济命运的联系肯定要比表面所看到的更为密切。

政治局已经认识到了这点。上周五政治局在北京召开会议，宣布将进一步进行司法改革，以满足人民群众不断增长的需要，促进经济发展。他们认识到了中国对政治权力没有足够的制衡。这导致了警察的独断专行。他们承诺将启动改革，以达到创建和谐社会这一总体目标。

目前详细情况还未对外透露，但有几点是明确的：首先，中国不会完全照搬西方模式。中国将走自己的道路。其次，中国将继续维持共产党的控制。

具有中国特色的司法改革

当我们听到司法改革一词时，我们会想到许多同中国有关的事情，如司法独立、更公正的司法程序、和律师发挥更大的作用等。

一个有关法院的重大问题是中国领导层必须面对的，那就是法院能够做什么？他们能受理所有的案件吗？还是只受理不敏感的案件？

法院在原则上可以受理各种诉讼，但在实践中却会出现许多阻力，如有时不允许律师的介入。现在涉及地震和毒牛奶受害者的案件又给法院提出了新的问题。法院应受理这些案件吗？执政党一直对此感到犹豫。我们不清楚最终的答案。但我们知道试图帮助这些受害者的律师都遇到了困难。

要记住的一点是，法庭并不能将所有的事都处理得很好……如果新法官能力或经验有限，或许让其他机构来处理某些问题（就像美国在处理911恐怖袭击事件相关索赔时所做的那样）是适当的做法。中国的问题是，如果他们不打算利用法庭来处理各种冤屈事件（而且这些冤屈事件在与日俱增），他们必须建立一些有效的替代机制来处理这些问题。而且，尽管你听到一些要帮助地震和毒牛奶事件受害者的空口承诺……但在行政受理、相关赔偿以及悉心倾听等方面存在着严重问题。

但并非只有（进行西方式司法改革）一种可能。在中国，领导层对司法改革是什么有一种不同看法。从一年前开始，我们看到共产党在法院工作方面有了一个新方针，那就是：重新回到党以前曾执行过的所谓“群众路线”，这一路线最早是1949年以前在解放区提出的。那是个单纯的时期，在乡村环境下，法律被认为并非人们十分渴望的东西，当然没有成文法，也没有法庭做正式裁决。法律应被用作协调群众关系的一种方式，案件应该尽可能通过调解作出裁决──不论是在法庭内还是法庭外──而且法庭应该与群众相联系。法官不应经过很专业的培训，而是应该跟普通百姓打成一片。

现在，胡锦涛去年12月提出的“三个至上”已经成了中国领导层对司法工作的指导方针。

“三个至上”

三个至上从高到低依次是党、社会、宪法和法律。比如，新任最高人民法院院长在谈到死刑时曾说，当法院决定是否判处一个人死刑时，群众的感受是第一位的。排在其次的是社会形势，第三才是法律。这大大打击了这个新兴司法体系里很多专业人员的积极性，（他们）接受了大量基于三个至上理论的政治灌输。

中国的法律和经济困境

中国领导人也很犹豫，他们犹豫是因为……以前的领导层引进了西方法律的制度、价值观念和程序，不过他们一直在说，至少是三天两头地说，对这些别太当真。与此同时，他们也给人民带来了权利意识……而且中国法律意识不够浓厚的那一半人（那些在这轮精彩的经济现代化过程中没有得益的人）已在越来越多地揭露各种黑幕。他们正在拿起法律的武器。

我想，法律与当前这场经济危机的关系很近……荒年多冤屈。即使是在经济繁荣发展的时期，（中国）也发生了大量公众抗议事件，其中有很多是暴力事件。眼下，如果有千百万人失业会发生什么？他们享受不到许多其他国家提供给失业人员的社会保障体系。中国人已经懂得了群体行动或许是申诉冤情的唯一有效办法……因为司法体系还没有发展出那种能处理冤情的必要制度。

这是一种制度上的挑战。我对（领导人习惯于压制）感到担心。但我们看到，仅靠压制会给民众造成更大的不公正感。因此，我认为他们不应压制，而是必须开始冒险──这对中国来说确实是冒险──发展出解决这些冤屈的法律制度。这意味着进行地方性选举，它肯定意味着一些自治权，这样才能使法庭作出公正、不偏不倚的裁决，它意味着会产生一些能有效替代法庭的机构，因为在我看来，如果不这么做，仅靠压制是完不成这个任务的，它只会把事情搞得更糟。

这就是三十年后中国的现状：在法律规范上取得了很大进步。人们有了一个法律制度，但它不是一个可靠的法制体系，这对中国并不只是一个学术问题。它对中国来说可能是件最重要的事情，而且它肯定会对这场正不断扩大的经济危机产生影响。

Sky Canaves

（“中国日志”（China Journal）关注全球第一人口大国的发展变化，《华尔街日报》获奖团队数十位记者倾情献稿，Sky Canaves主笔。欢迎读者发送邮件至chinajournal@wsj.com或在下面评论栏中发表评论和建议。）

本文网址: [URL] 免费登录华尔街日报中文网络版(cn.WSJ.com)，阅读更多精彩报导 有好的建议？请和道琼斯公司北京办事处联系 电话：86-10-65814090 传真：86-10-65814089 电子邮件：Info.chinese@dowjones.com