Research On The Quota System For Judges In China

The group scale and complexity of the Chinese judge system is second to none across the world.Due to such special and large-population characteristic of this professional group,to reform and manage the quota of judges requires not only the revolutionary courage and vigor,but also the support from institutional theory background and practical solidity.The establishment of Chinese judge quota system is attributed to the current reform of judicial system.In 1999,the proposal of establishing the judge quota system was first put forward in The First Five-year Reform Outline for the People's Court.In 2014,The Fourth Five-year Reform Outline for the People's Court officially confirmed the establishment of the judge quota system.Having been ruminating for over fifteen years,such quota system reform was finally pushed to the forefront.In 2014,Shanghai kicked off the pilot judicial post system.In 2017,the quota system reform was ultimately implemented in more than 3,500 domestic courts across China.Three consecutive years of pilot reform has witnessed the decline in the number of Chinese judges from 212,000 to 125,000.The reform and construction of the judge quota system in China is incomparable in its scale,profundity,level of difficulty,as well as its systematicity,integrity and synergy.There is little doubt that the country has undergone a tremendous and epoch-making transformation in the overall judge management system.In essence,the reform of the judge quota system is a profound change of the judge personnel system.It aims at improving the trial performance by continuously improving the allocation of judicial human resources and the structure of the trial team,which will then further meet the increasing judicial needs of general public.However,any reform will not be achieved overnight,let alone the reform of the judge quota system – which is a complex and sophisticated systematic project.Currently,the reform itself can rely on both of the internal institutional innovation and the external political-economic drive,and it is promoted in a way of "super-additional setting" in order to maximize its legitimacy and rationality.However,in the context of China's current judicial reform,it has always been considered a responsive and subsequent reform.Meanwhile,the reform of quota system is not a "universal key",that said,its effectiveness is always limited in application and functions.Thus,the reform procedure contains problems and complicated contradictions.Compared to countries or regions with fully developed rule-by-law,we should see that China's judge quota system is still at its initial stage and is far from mature,and there appear some trends contrary to the reform goals from time to time.In particular,when the quota structure of judges was rapidly adjusted,the red line of 39% regarding the quota proportion has brought about a series of new problems because of its unitary connotation.For example,although there is a clear proportion,the accuracy of the formulation is vague;although there is personnel classification,the classification management is not robust;although there are personnel ratios,the formation of trial teams is limited;although there is a division of labor,there is a lack of cooperative governance mechanism.This has actually been shown,in studying the basic theory of judge quota system and its operation mechanism,that we need a rational justification and an in-depth demonstration process.Particularly after the preliminary completion of the quota reform,for realistic necessity,theoretical innovation and practical implication,we have to find out the orientation and fit point of the judge quota system in the reform of judicial system,and to systematically summarize and reflect on the motives,paths,achievements and imperfections of current reform in the Chinese context.To this end,it is essential to answer the question: how can we optimize the allocation of existing Chinese judicial human resources”,coupled with the “double perspectives” by focusing on macro governance and micro judicial personnel management.In this way,it can help generalize the theoretical basis and operational mechanism in the regulation of judicial officials,help combine the social judicial needs with local practices,help summarize the realistic basis of the judge quota system,and finally sort out the history of China's judicial personnel system and the previous large-scale dynamic reform.In addition,we are to understand the design of pilot reforms and judge quota by analyzing in a qualitative manner and studying the influence of judge quota relationship on the stability of the quota structure.Furthermore,through psychological analysis and comparison of quota systems in different countries before and after the reform,we need to further explore the relevant factors affecting the judge quota adjustment.Strategies and specific measures for the improvement of the judge quota management are proposed in the end.Based on the ideas aforementioned,this study aims at illustrating such critical issues from the perspectives of theory,history,motivation,goals,paths,obstacles,risks and countermeasures in the judge quota system.Firstly,through a comprehensive analysis of the judge quota system,it presents the basic principles,value orientation,ideal effect,due features and evaluation criteria of the judge quota system.It also discusses the limits of the judge quota system,reveals the intention of the quota system of governance pattern in the organizational,personnel and functional structures of the court.This study posits that the logical starting point of the judge quota system lies in the modernization of the judge management.In other words,it attempted to achieve an effective judge quota management by combining the standardized operation of judicial power and the optimized judicial human resources.This justifies the legitimacy and rationale of reforming the judge quota system.Secondly,dominated by the quota relation,structure and governance,this research looks at the origin and evolution of the judge quota system so as to grasp local resources and modern factors contained in the judge management under the context of China's political and social changes.Here,it explores the historical background and path of the quota system by examining the expression paradigm of the judge quota system from the contexts of current system,clarifying the framework and pilot patterns of the system,exploring its origin and cultural soil.This provides a historical basis for a profound understanding of the judge quota system reform.Thirdly,based on the pilot practice of the quota reform,this work then closely follows the delimitation and implementation of the red line of the proportioned judge quota through in-depth analysis of the pilot projects in regions such as Shanghai,Guangdong,Hainan,and Beijing.It explores the different psychological representations of various groups before and after the reform and the causes,which points out the difficulties in contextualizing the mechanism.Based on this,the study further analyzes problems and risks arising from the reform from technology and localizing aspects before providing policy recommendations on reforms.Fourthly,this research also looks from a global perspective by using comparative legal analysis.By examining representative countries or regions in both common law and civil Law systems,it studies the quota system designs by summarizing their common characteristics and main origins.This would serve as an useful reviewing and reflection on China's own judge quota framework to provide resolutions for the improvements.Fifthly,with reference to the judicial principles and real-life context,this study focuses on the analysis of strategic arrangement,priority and specific implementation of the judge quota system.For effectively integrating the reform interests,value orientation and stimulation of motivations,it proposes that we should make good use of big data to improve the accuracy of quota.Specific measures include expanding the capacity of the proportional red line,legislation of judge quota law,refinement of classification of judges,improvement of the dynamic management mechanism of judge quota,and exploration of an evaluation mechanism for judge quota.In operating the judicial power,this study also asserts that future judge quota reform should pay attention to the supporting system,clear obstacles in the current system,and gradually carry out the reform concept in a structural,contextual and open way.