Gender And Justice: Women Judges The Perspective Of The Trial Of Divorce Cases

The Judicial process can be subject to enormous factors, among which gender takes a significant part. Nonetheless, researches on gender in judicature are quite limited; there is a want of systematic research on gender in judicature in domestic, some in alien countries notwithstanding. Therefore, this paper, from the perspective of female judges' adjudication on divorce cases, studies on the trial by female judges as well as the relationship between gender and justice, which is of somewhat extensive implication. Nowadays, female judges play a significant role in the judgment. In light of this background, it is of realistic significance to investigate the status quo of the female judges' working and the trial practice, analyze the characteristics and causes of their trials thereupon. Additionally, observation on the trials by female judges is helpful for us to grasp the adjudication activity and the pertinent issues during the judicial proceedings. On this very point, study on the trial by female judges bears certain theoretical meaning.This paper employs the research approach of sociology of law. By the question-centered model, it stands on the Chinese reality and judicial practice to discover and pose questions, and then explain these questions by means of relative theories. The author chooses M People's Court of T, G (M Court) as the subject for survey. As for perspective of research, the author opts for the divorce cases, as ascribes to the particularity of the divorce cases which makes it a n appropriate aspect for research. The author consulted the documents of divorce cases concluded by M Court in recent three years, made comparison between cases trialed by female and male judges separately, and participated in the trial proceedings of some divorce cases herself, based on which she fabricated the study materials.This paper contains six parts. The fist part is Introduction, which illustrates the cause of choosing female judges as research perspective, presents the status quo of the study on the female judges, and point out that systematic survey on the group of female judges, though greatly concerned by the society and public opinions, is insufficient in theoretical circle. The second part analyses the framework and the research approach. It firstly demonstrates the difference between the sexes and the female characteristics, based on which it conducts some theoretical assumption on the trial traits of female judges. Moreover, it briefly introduces the research approach of this paper as well as the method, process and subject of this survey.The third part is empirical analysis of divorce cases in M Court. First of all, it introduces the basic data about the divorce cases, such as their amount, causes, etc, and then briefly presents the concerned condition about the trial on divorce cases in M Court, as well as gives some analysis accordingly on their mediation and judgment binding with pertinent theories.The fourth part is the manner of the trial by female judges, which states the process and results of the mediation and adjudication practice adopted by female judges, describes the concrete situation of female judges' trial on divorce cases by empirical data and materials, and makes some comparison of the trial practice between different sexes, based on which it analyses and probes into the trial manner of female judges. In addition, this part analyses the types of female judges, which classifies them into Experienced Female Judges, Skilled Female Judges and Half-skilled Female Judges, revealing that different types of female judges, as their aging and increasing working experiences, bear different characteristics when they trial cases, and there must be some connection between gender and judicature.The fifth part is the cause and features of the trial by female judges. Based on the empirical analysis, this part summarizes the features of female judges' trial and throws light upon its cause, as can be regarded as the conclusion to this paper. According to the viewpoint of this paper, the features should include: they moderately adopt mediation; their moderation is penetrating and meticulous; the possibility for successful moderation is far higher and they pay much attention to the due course as well as the correcting of sex discrimination. Meanwhile, the reason for the above-mentioned features are: the influence of their value and gender character, the requirement of the law profession, the penetration of public opinions and the effect of female judges' personal character and experience.The sixth part is the conclusion, which reviews and generalizes the whole paper. In this part, the author points out the direction for the advancement of the research, and, associated with the proceeding of the survey and judicial practice, puts forward some research issues of theoretical and practical meaning.The potential ingenuity of this paper may be as follows: first, choose "female judges"-the judicial party as the subject, observe the trial activity by female judges from a closer perspective, which is of extensive implication in the option of the topic for study; second, by empirical survey, illuminate the trail practice of the female judges, come up with the feature and its cause of female judges' trail thereupon, which is of certain realistic meaning; third, through the observation of the trail practice of the female judges, investigate the judicial proceedings and trial practice, meanwhile, point out that gender has a certain effect upon the judicature, which is of a certain theoretical meaning. Notwithstanding, this paper also bears some imperfections, for example, owing to the limitation of the time and scope of survey as well as the subjectivity and flexibility of the subjects, the empirical data and individual cases involved in the paper, in some degree, can be no more than the material for posing questions, and the conclusion drawn accordingly is no more than the Orientational pre-assumption but not of extensive application and absoluteness. Therefore, the investigation and survey on female judges still demands further deepening and enrichment.