Empirical Research Of Grassroots Mediation Mechanism In The New Period

The construction of harmonious society requires to re-shape the dispute resolution system. It is more important for a country ruled by law to integrate law into the lives of people and make it become the universal rule of dispute resolution. China is a large agricultural nation, and stability and harmony in rural area directly affects the development of the whole country. Disputes in transitional period are more widespread and complex, so it is important for us to make full use of mediation mechanism to dissolve disputes arising from the grassroots society, and to create a good environment for social development. Nowadays mediation is taken seriously again and brings life to social harmony and dispute resolution mechanism. By inspecting the organization, looking into the function and operation of mediation mechanism in grassroots society, we can find different concepts and internal contradictions contained among them.Relying on the field work conducted in Chenghai district located in the East Guangdong, in this article the author analyzes the present development, and examines the characteristics and features of the people's mediation at the village and township level. The author finds that although the People's Mediation Committee (PMC) is the foundation of grass-roots mediation, the lack of authority causes much trouble to the dispute resolution. The emergence of the so-called"big mediation"across the country indicates the necessity and various possibilities of coordinating all kinds of dispute resolution organizations. The"big mediation"contains and coordinates the people's mediation, administrative mediation and judicial mediation. Along with the development of its form, range and level, grass-roots mediation gradually shows different directions, such as self-governing, judicial and administrative. These different directions make full use of various dispute resolution resources, and actively respond to the needs of governance and dispute resolution in the new period. But at the same time, various forms of practice are not in line with the principle of rule of law, so it should be adjusted and improved by the target of lawgovernment. At the end of this thesis, the author puts forward some suggestions which can reduce the risks of mediation mechanism reform, though these suggestions are made only based on the field work in Chenghai district.