Distant Path To Justice

Taking the methods of sociology of law, this paper observes the judicial operation of grassroots courts in the west through an female clerk's eyes who is born in 1980s. So that shows the hard and remote realization of justice in these courts in China.The full text is divided into seven parts:The first part is the introduction,which tells us the purpose, significance and research methods of this topic and the logical structure of the whole text.This paper summarizes the purpose from four aspects, i.e. the reason why to choose an 1980s born female clerk; why Liuqing; why grassroots courts in the west and why to observe the judicial operation of these courts through an female clerk's eyes.As the paraprofessional personnel of judicial work in lawcourts,clerks mainly charge court proceedings record and other work connected with the trial. Currently, of the clerks court systems recruit mostly are women born in 1980s. This paper aims to observe the present situations and operation of grassroots courts in the west through a 1980s born female clerk's eyes named Liuqing. Grassroots courts are important component of judicial system.Especially the grassroots courts in the backward western areas that take on distinct characeristic. This study exhibits the reality of grassroots courts in the west, reflects the difficulties of Chinese judicial reform, and further shows the hard and remote realization of justice in grassroots society in China.The second part is about the grassroots courts in the west through the eyes of a 1980s born female clerk,which depicts the experience of a 1980s born female clerk named Liuqing in A county of Guizhou province from a front desk secretary to a clerk in details. From the account of Liuqing, the essay displays the social environment including political, economic and culture environment western grassroots courts are in and the influence they produce on grassroots judicial. The county locates in the west of China with many peoples and lagged economic and social develpment, so hard to keep talents that the brain drain is serious. Therefore, rigorous team construction problem confronts grassroots courts in the west of China.The third part is about the trial in Liuqing's eyes,which observes the trials in grassroots courts in the west through Liuqing's eyes.Judges in these courts often contact parties directly,even deal with some important things in private,consequently the trials in court become mere formality. Mastering a whole set of operation techniques, judges are good at manipulating trial process. And of these techniques the most important is the operation of trial in courts, namely, putting the whole thing into black and white files.All kinds of reasons bring about difficulties to initiate legal proceeding for civilians. That's why Liuqing signed with emotion,saying,"not to court."The fourth part is about the court in Liuqing's eyes, which observes the organization structure and power operation of grassroots courts in the west through Liuqing's eyes. The relationship between president of the court, vice president of the court, presiding judge and judges are subtle. President of the court gets superior power and has the last word, while vice president of the court gets inferior authority, and judges shall respect the vice president of the court ostensibly.Only with capability can presiding judge gain prestige, otherwise even clerks do not care him. Judges often sumit cases under discussion to judicial committee as a way of shirking responsibility when facing stressful cases assigned by leaders. However judicial committee often take president's opinion, which results in such a phenomenon that judicial committee's opinion mainly is president's view. With regard to the parties' trouble-making conduct, president and the judge often say,"It's judicial committee's view, so I have no way." Thus the committee becomes a tool for president and judges to shirk their responsibility. In Liuqing's view, miscarriage of justice is quite an objective phenomenon although may not too many malpractices exist. And then judicial corruption is not only judges' problem but also the whole society's general one.The fifth part is about the parties in Liuqing's eyes, which observes the parties through Liuqing's eyes. It's not easy for civilians to go to court. On the one hand, they always feel in the right to reason in court. On the other hand, civilians are incapable of litigation with limited education. What's more, so rarely do they get lawyers that are easy to be trapped by the judges who have been tackled by the parties which makes it hard to safeguard their rights. In nowadays China, personal relationship is needed for litigation as much as possible.Sometimes the parties also employ lawyers. Different lawyers may put different impacts on the lawsuit outcome. While the ones having good relationships with judges can win the case easily.The sixth part is Liuqing's ideality,which depicts Liuqing's dream, reflecting the possibility of alleviating the judge shortage problem to some extent with clerks' growth.And then analyse the court personnel classification management system. The paper also involves a discussion of judges' development. The administrative management of judges restricts their development space. Judges will not regard the profession itself as honor, instead, they take the administrative posts as highest level of their career.The last part is conclusion,which attempts to theoretically promote the full text. From lagged courts construction, parties' incapability and operated justice three aspects, this paper analyses the hard and remote realization of justice, and then extracts the theme—distant justice. Justice realization not only needs parties efforts to fight for justice, but also depends on improvement of systems and environment, for instance, judicial system should be further improved, legal procedure should be further scientific, court group's quality greatly enhanced, parties litigation ability further improved and so on. Finally, the article also make some reflection on research methods, pointing out that the clerk Liuqing is nothing but author's observation tool. Author just observes judicial operation conditions through her eyes, instead of taking her views on justice as fixed truth.The paper depicts a story of 1980s born female clerk with some novelty in the research and narrative methods. From the angle of Liuqing's individual experience also helps directly unfold modern China's western grassroots courts' operation condition, problems confronted and development direction. Certainly, limitation may exists if only take Liuqing's case to talk about all kinds of problems confronting grassroots courts in western China. Notwithstanding the paper only stands on case study with no intention to derive general from individual case, to overcome the fracture between individual case and general will be the author's striving direction.