Social Review Of The Judicial Reform In The Late Qing Dynasty

Legal reform, in the early 20^th century, is a vital part of the system revolution after the New Deal began from 1901 in Qing Dynasty. Due to its connections with all the classes and its influence on every aspects of social life, the exploration of the legal innovation of that time, especially the actual operation of judiciary in social life, can have a real reflection of realistic effects of judicial reform, and social responds and adaptation to national legal innovation.So the author, takes a new research angle by selecting new media Shen Bao, Dagong Bao as basic historical materials, which have had a relatively large influence on the circles of politics, intelligence and the common people, and probes the concrete operation of judicial reform in locals by depending on official history, laws, rules and regulations, in an attempt to make up the deficiencies of research for the judicial reform in the late Qing Dynasty and reveal the internal links between it and modern social transitionThe paper is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the thesis decision, the review of academic history and basic research thoughts, etc.Chapter 2 mainly discusses the trends of judicial reform in the late Qing Dynasty. After the Opium War, open-minded people such as Ma Jianzhong, Huang Zunxian, Zheng Guanying and Yanfu put forward concrete viewpoints of judicial reform and set off the trend in the late Qing Dynasty. This chapter also tells about the difficulties of traditional justice and the introduction of western judicial ideas.Chapter 3 is a discussion of the judicial reform beginning with the abolition of inquisition by torture. The traditional torture system was faced with double-challenge from reality and thoughts, so its abolition aroused fierce controversy within and without the court. However, the Imperial Order of Abolition was poorly implemented due to traditional legal ideas and feudal countries' political system.Chapter 4 looks into the reform and practice of local trial agencies in the late Qing Dynasty. The traditional integration of administration and justice systems brought about lots of abuses at local judicial trial. Based on the analysis of cases in Tianjin Trial Chamber, it can be observed the reform of local trial system set up a model for the future trial system reform and cultivated lots of contemporary judicial talents, and to some extent, promoted the changes of judicial ideas.Chapter 5 discusses the modernization of Prison System in the late Qing Dynasty. As the upsurge of prison innovation trend, the Qing government changed traditional prison system under the motivation of the government and the public, including setting up agencies for prisoners to learn, reforming new prisons, standardizing the prison administration, storing talents for prison administration, etc. It promoted the spread of the modern Western trend of prison administration, laid a foundation for the modern changes of Chinese prison, and cultivated lots of new talents for prison administration. Due to the lack of dynamism in the operation, there were still traces of traditional ideas of prison administration.Chapter 6 is an analysis of the changes in legal education in modern times. After the Opium War, traditional legal education also needed a new reform under the clash and blend of the Western and Eastern cultures. The reform can be divided into two stages: at the first stage, Chinese went abroad to learn Western legal systems; at the second stage, modern legal culture was spread at home. As for its effects, it absorbed the modern western legal cultures, promoted the widespread of modern legal and political knowledge, and to some extent, pushed the modern judicial reform. But there are problems in the operating process, such as utilitarian factors in law and politics educations, shortcomings in the administration of law and politics education agencies.Chapter 7 discusses the modern changes of traditional legal vocation. In the early 20^th century, changes of vocational thoughts and the operation of legal reform provide conditions for modern legal vocation. The operation of the legal vocational education and the establishment of the admittance system of legal vocation, which symbolized the birth of the modern legal vocation in China, lay a foundation for the birth of the legal vocational class, promoted the development of the legal vocational education, and left a positive influence on Chinese judicial reform.Chapter 8 is conclusion. It generalizes the whole paper and briefly sums up the achievement of judicial reform, its deficiencies and causes, as well as the historical lessons in the late Qing Dynasty.