| The thesis is a comparative study of court systems in China and Canada. It illuminates similarities and differences by exploring how each country's courts conduct litigation, how courts are expected to function and operate, as well as the relationships between the judiciaries and related social entities like the governing political party, the legislature, the executive and the professional lawyers. The courts' different roles in conducting the litigation process is not only caused by differences in trial modes or step-by-step proceedings, but in a court's stature in the community and in the individual judge's privileged position in each judicial system.; The thesis has three major parts: the comparison of legal environments within which each country's courts operate, the comparison of the functioning and operation of each court system, and the comparison of the busiest, grassroots court's role in conducting the litigation process. Each part is divided into objective points, and either country's practice is contrasted with that of the other country in immediate ways. In order to form a sharp contrast, a lot of examples and cases are cited. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
