On The Healing Function Of Family Justice

Since the Supreme People’s Court launched the pilot reform of family trial style and working mechanism in some courts in 2016,courts across China have practiced the concept of humane family trial,focused on humanistic care,and given full play to the diagnostic,repair and therapeutic role of family trial on marital relationships,and the therapeutic function of family justice has received increasing attention.However,the practice of family justice reform which introduces the therapeutic function lacks systematic theoretical support and needs to be regulated by introducing relevant theories to maximize the therapeutic function of family justice.This thesis analyzes the theoretical basis of the therapeutic function – Therapeutic Jurisprudence,examines the practice of the therapeutic function of family justice in the United States,discusses the inspiration of the practice of the therapeutic function of family justice in the United States to China,and proposes feasible suggestions for the practice of the therapeutic function of family justice in China.The first chapter of the thesis provides an overview of the theoretical basis of the therapeutic function of family justice – Therapeutic Jurisprudence: born in the United States in the 1980 s,Therapeutic Jurisprudence has a complex development background,and with the needs of practice,it has developed and improved itself,and its influence has gradually expanded worldwide.Its connotation emphasizes two core points: emphasis on the role of legal actions on the psychological and emotional aspects of the parties and stakeholders;the application process,the need to focus on the realization of the dual goals of positive and negative,interventions are enhanced in a positive way to promote positive therapeutic effects,while efforts are made to ameliorate the potential negative effects of adversarial dispute resolution procedures to avoid counter-therapeutic effects.The application of Therapeutic Jurisprudence in family justice is to bring into play the therapeutic function of family justice.In family justice,the therapeutic function is both different from and related to the interpersonal repair function,and the realization of the interpersonal repair function is conducive to the realization of the therapeutic function.The second chapter of the thesis examines the practical implementation of the therapeutic function of family justice in the United States.The first focuses on the problems of traditional family justice in the U.S.before the therapeutic function achieved and the resulting adverse effects,and then describes how the U.S.has transformed its traditional approach and established and exercised the therapeutic function of family justice in practice in a comprehensive and multi-level manner: the emergence of problem-solving courts related to family issues;the establishment of a family justice system that maximizes the interests of children;the reform and improvement of the joint custody;and the success of mediation has been promoted through active and professional judicial intervention.The traditional problems of family justice have been solved and the negative effects mitigated.The third chapter of the thesis explains what the practice of family justice about its therapeutic function in the United States has taught us: first,there is a need for the therapeutic function of family justice,which is necessary to handle family dispute properly,to reshape the role of judges,lawyers and other legal professionals,and to accelerate the innovation of the judicial system;second,China can consider adopting legislation to achieve the therapeutic function of family justice;third,the active participation of parties,stakeholders and lawyers is needed to bring the therapeutic function of family justice into play;finally,the construction of a professional and diversified judicial team is needed to bring the therapeutic function into play.The fourth chapter of the thesis firstly affirms the new way of handling family cases in the reform of our national family justice system,and then points out the existing problems and suggests the ways to realize the therapeutic function in our family justice system: firstly,to innovate in the concept,understanding and paying attention to the therapeutic function of family justice;secondly,to clarify various mechanisms to realize it,to establish special family courts,to innovate confidentiality,mediation and evaluation,and so on,to speed up relevant legislation to achieve the therapeutic function of family justice,and to increase the participation of parties,stakeholders and lawyers;third,in terms of supporting systems,to start from the details,to pay attention to the courtroom layout,the designation of parties,psychological intervention and psychological counseling.