The Regulation Of Judge Civil Discretion

In all aspects of civil trials, judges have varying degrees of discretion. Proper exercise of discretion is conducive to efficiently solve civil disputes and achieve fair trials. But power without effective restraints is bound to bring harm. Whether the discretion of judges in civil trails is abused or misused has attracted more and more attention. Grassroots judges account for a majority of all judges and have a wider coverage. The perspectives of grassroots judges in handling civil cases are studied, including what factors to considered in handling civil cases and why? Two standards are involved in determining whether the behaviors taken by the judges under the impact of various factors are proper, including legality and rationality. The current rules of review and signature of judicial documents, panel hearing or judicial committee cannot cause the judges to properly exercise their discretion per requirements. To review and sign the judicial documents prepared by responsible judges is an evolution of internal approval system of administrative bodies in courts, which to some extent causes the formation of agreement between the judges and court officials. The minority opinions of collegiate panel members are not indicated in the judicial documents. Therefore, the non-enforcement officers among collegiate panel members don’t have the initiative to fully express their opinions. If the Judicial Committee holds discussion for difficult and complicated cases, the judgment will be more susceptible to the impact of political and local interests, etc. Collective abuse of discretion will bring serious consequences. In response to the current institutional environment of China, improving the qualities of judges by training and continuous rectification activities alone cannot solve the issue of discretion abuse fundamentally. We need to improve legislation to gradually form an institutional environment that is helpful for establishing a self-regulatory mechanism of judges. With the unified responsibilities and rights of judges, we should create an atmosphere for independent judgment of judges in civil litigations and then achieve independent judgment in this area and make a judge an appealing job for people. To make their opinions of judges presented in judicial documents meaningful and let the society hear their voices are the inexhaustible motive for judges to exercise their rights. Currently, the role of typical cases that have reference value in legal practice is becoming more and more significant. For civil cases without clear legal provisions or concord understandings of various parties, the interested parties will initiatively refer to similar cases to the enforcement officers for reference. To achieve fairness and avoid wanton exercise of discretion by judges, it is necessary to forcefully request the judges to explain in detail the reasons for not referring to similar or some-type cases presented before them. Consequently, the influence of court cases will be enhanced, judges will be motivated to produce excellent judicial documents with full justification and the abuse of discretion of judges in civil trails will be greatly restrained.