ABSTRACT
Recently, circulating among leaders of the regime and the Chinese media are new buzzwords: “yifa zhiguo” or “governing the nation by law.” To avert comparison and criticism, the CCP specifies that the Chinese judicial system is one “with Chinese characteristics.” The Party media described these “Chinese characteristics” as being led and operated under the watchful eye of the CCP, a self-disciplining mechanism accompanying formal laws to propagate propriety among the citizenry. Although there may be merits in the Chinese approach, especially with the moral code, there are still many potential problems inherent in a judicial system with these two “Chinese characteristics,” such as: When the court’s agenda is in conflict with the Party’s, who should have the final say? Or, how should the court adjudicate when “the doctrine of reasonableness” disagrees with the court’s verdict? Through the discussion, it becomes obvious that the two “Chinese characteristics” – having one leading Party overhead and a long-standing value system of relationalism underfoot – have led its judicial system onto a pathway quite different from what the world would expect.
