Research On Reforming China's Petitioning System Concerning Judicature

With the fast development of our country's society and economy,the contradiction between people's growing judicial demand and the People's Court's relatively insufficient judicial capacity is looming.As a result,the problem of petition has become more and more serious in the recent decade.Complaint letters and visits remain at a high level;group visits,obstinate visits,staying visits,repetitive visits,and radical visits become more and more serious;irrational phenomena like “rather believe in complaint visits than in the law” are growing more violent.As a major part of the People's Court's tasks,petition is concerned with the maintenance of social order,the improvement of judicial public credibility,and the fundamental interests of the broadest masses.At present,the reform of judicial system has gone into the deep-water stage.Thus,it has become an urgent,important and long-term task to conduct well petition reform in courts,which is a significant part of the judicial system reform.In the backdrop of the basic strategy of the rule of the law raised by CPC Central Committee,whether the petition reform in courts could be well completed has a significant meaning for our promoting the construction of socialist rule of law and letting the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.The author of this paper is currently working for the Supreme People's Court and therefore has access to plenty of first-hand materials regarding the status quo and the reform of petition in courts.On the basis of previous studies and combining theories from administration,statistics,law and sociology,this paper investigates in depth the history,reasons,and characteristics of the People's Court's petition system and has come up with seven reform suggestions and measures stressing “legalization” and“informatization” that aim at petition in courts.It is hoped that the results of this paper could be of value to academic research in the field of petition as well as to the practice of the national four-level court system.This paper is divided into five parts: Part One lays emphasis on the background,research value and main ideas of this topic;Part Two mainly explains the public administration theories and legal theories related to the People's Court's petition,the necessity of the existence of petition,and the meaning of handling it well;Part Three analyzes the historical reasons,forming stages,and major characteristics of petition system;Part Four expounds the key measures and important results of the People's Court in petition;Part Five puts forward suggestions and countermeasures in petition for the People's Court.