Development And Perfection Of The Court Mediation System Of China

Court Mediation System takes its deep root in the long-history tradition and juridical practice of our country. Being praised as the "Experience of the East", it represents part of our fine tradition in civil trial practice. Court Mediation as one method to settle civil cases in china has gone through different phases where its principle had varied from "mediation in the first place", "mediation as favorable approach", "mediation and judgment laid with equal stress", and the controlled used of mediation thereafter, and now back to the enhanced adoption of mediation. Under the circumstances that our country is in pursuit of a concord society and a general development, Court Mediation System is playing its due role. Development and improvement of a system always happens in its process of continuous reform. In this regard, what we should do now is not to abandon it but to make a in-depth research thereupon and to carry forward such a fine tradition.In Section 1 and 2 herein, the author tries to make an analysis on the prevailing Court Mediation System in respect of development, features, functions, and the strong and weak points thereof, by which a conclusion is reached that the defect of Court Mediation System (hereinafter "CMS") is never impossible to be overcomed. CMS will play no doubt its positives role in settling dispute by a timely, economical, and thorough way, so long as we stick, in civil cases, to the doctrine of the autonomy of the parties. By combining this idea with his trial practice, the author proposes in Section 3 and 4 some solutions to reform the prevailing CMS, where his arguments as the essence of this thesis are expounded to be different from usual comments on CMS. In these two sections, demonstration is made in the key respects of CMS including its principle, opening, participants, process, formationof mediation agreement, and closing, as well as surveillance thereupon. The thesis is concluded by a design of how the doctrine of autonomy of the parties in a civil case should be reflected in CMS practice.