New Challenges to the Judicial System: Measuring Attitudes among Public and Legal Professionals toward Justice with the China Justice Index

DOI: 10.5176/2251-3809_LRPP18.148

Authors: Xiaohan Sun

Abstract:

Courts face new challenges in the twenty-first century because of their complexity. Public opinion surveys play a more critical role in alerting judges to the difference between how the courts look to legal professionals and the public. Judges who rendered a decision have already considered current public criticism, or they may later change their minds in response to the criticism. This paper utilizes a normative study and an empirical study to assess the impact of public opinion surveys on the court system. This paper highlights the upbeat assessment of court performance towards justice based on the China Justice Index (CJI) dataset. It uses comparative analysis to make an elaborate explanation of the downbeat assessment of court performance by measuring the choice of the courts, judges’ decision acceptance, and general assessment of official justice. The results identify public concerns of the judicial system are inefficiency, inadequate service, and bias and political pressure. The aim of this paper is to pave the way for judicial reform and explain the most significant tasks for further judicial reform.1

Keywords: judicial Reform, Legal Reform, Court performance, Public opinions, Procedural justice, Distributive justice, Judge thinking paradigm, Public Policy, Civil disputes system, Increasing caseloads