Reflection On The Phenomenon Of "Zero Judgment"

The phrase Zero Judgment is no longer new to academia and judicial organ. Many local courts are competing against each other for the so-called Zero Judgment, emphasizing mediation and the rate of nolle prosequi in judicial process. This paper tries to analyse the phenomenon of Zero Judgment and reflect on China's mediation system.Part 1 summarizes the phenomenon of Zero Judgment. Chinese society is in the process of transformation. The old social norms that have been disintegrated are still influencing Chinese society and still influenced.New judicial ideas and new judicial system is being shaped. In the process of transformation, there exist some social contradictions and social order multi-polarizes. The building of rule of law can not keep pace with the development of society, the mixed social norms can not meet the needs of social development. The recurrence of mediation system which is to solve the dilemma facing Chinese society is based on the theories that China has no tradition of litigation and the judicial activism that is popular overseas.Part 2 explores judicial activism. This part, from historical dimension, reviews the development of judicial activism. Civil law system upholds the tradition of statute law and legal formalism, it serves to hinder the achievement of social equality and justice when judges apply legal rules in a mechanical and rigid way. In the common law system, the forming process of the law is how the judges make law. The power of the judges extends to the fields of legislation and judiciary and serves to promote and modify public policy. In China, the so-called judicial activism was born in a period when it serves to distinguish itself from the old system and demonstrate its socialist character bases on the doctrine of relying on people and people first.Part 3 discusses the problems behind the phenomenon of Zero Judgment which might have a negative impact on China's building of rule of law and soften both procedural law and substantive law to compromise the function of litigation. At the same time, this part also compares China's mediation with foreign settlement, exploring their differences.Part 4 ponders over the phenomenon of Zero Judgment and its enlightment on the establishment of relevant systems in China. Based on the analysis there-above, this paper concludes that the cultivation of litigation ideas should be supported by relevant systems and based on the process of rules of law, that it is necessary to respect the legal standing of all parties concerned to make sure that the judgements could be acceptable to the parties concerned.