Dispute Resolution in China

In recent years, the Chinese legal system on civil litigation, arbitration and mediation, including the respective laws, regulations, and legal institutions, has undergone many changes. Offering a detailed examination of the elements in the Chinese legal system and the relevant reforms to civil litigation, arbitration, mediation and hybrid dispute resolution, this book provides a comprehensive study of the civil and commercial dispute resolution landscape in China today. It situates these developments within a unique hybrid of empirical, contextual and comparative analytical framework, while providing roadmap for productive reforms in future. This book argues that, rather than being a legal project, China's civil dispute resolution system is essentiallya social development project and that the system is constrained by China's political imperatives, which distinguishes the Chinese approach to civil justice reform from contemporary civil justice movements elsewhere. Commercial arbitration in China today being comparatively less political in nature, its reform has been more driven by market-oriented considerations and shaped by socio-economic dynamics. By contrast, civil litigation and mediation being more instrumentalist in nature, their reform is socio-politically embedded and subject to the Chinese government's social and political objectives. This book will be essential reading and invaluable reference tool for scholars, students, policy makers and practitioners with a focus on Chinese law, dispute resolution, and broader economic and political dimensions of dispute resolution development in China--