ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the power arrangements of the SPC from an institutional perspective, introducing three layers of input factors, including the organizational framework, the micro-dynamics of individual judges, and the macro-dynamics of political determinants that help to understand how the SPC has been organized and empowered. Evidence presented in this chapter suggests that the SPC has made significant progress in the direction of a more competent, accountable, and predictable actor in the context of reform-era China. A noticeable trend to this end is the professionalization of the SPC and the increased competence of supreme court judges over the past decades. Nevertheless, the extent to which the SPC can exercise power independently and without interference does not automatically increase, as the SPC continues performing under deep-seated institutional and political constraints. This chapter further suggests that the Party’s supremacy over the judiciary and the bureaucratic style of judicial management have undermined the SPC’s institutional capacities and autonomy and inevitably brought long-term damage to individual judges with regard to their behavioral patterns and career identity.
