Judicial Independence and the Media in China [...]

AuthorThomas Van Mourik
Judicial Independence and the Media in China:
An Exercise in Modelling Interfering Relationships
as A Means of Assessment
Thomas Van Mourik*
I. INTRODUCTION
In the Post-Mao era, China initiated numerous legal reforms to reinstate the
peace and stability that had been lost during the Cultural Revolution. However,
as pointed out by scholars such as Zhu and Wang, this development is taking a
distinctly Chinese form as longstanding historical and societal influences pull
China’s legal system off the conventional western path to Rule of Law to which
we are most accustomed.1 The most significant difference in the paths taken by
China and Western liberal democracies is the existence of the Chinese Party-
State, which continues to operate above the law.2 As the judiciary remains a
tool of the Party-State, some scholars describe the legal system of China as Rule
by Law rather than Rule of Law.3 This ambiguity is further compounded by the
1999 amendment to Article 5 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of
China that states that China must be ‘a socialist country ruled by law’,
insinuating that law is a tool of the rulers. Whether one follows Stanley
Lubman’s view that Rule of Law will continue to be caged under Party-State
control, or one agrees with Randall Peerenboom’s argument that Rule of Law
has already begun to take shape within the framework of increasing economic
and social freedoms, one thing is clear: judicial independence is crucial in order
for the Party to be truly accountable for their actions. Only then will China
evolve into a true Rule of Law state.4
* Thomas Van Mourik graduated with a BA Hons in Chinese Studies from the University of
Sheffield before studying an MA in International Law at SOAS, University of London.
1 Wang Chenguang, From the Rule of Man to the Rule of Law in Cai Dingjiang and Wang
Chenguang (eds), Chinas Journey toward the Rule of Law: Legal Reform, 1978-2008, vol 1 (Brill
2010) in John Fitzgerald (ed), Social Scientific Studies in Reform Era China (Brill 2010); Sanzhu Zhu
(ed), Laws and Institutions of Modern China (Routledge 2011) 1-34.
2 Stanley B Lubman, Bi rd in a Cage: Legal Reform in China after Mao (Stanford University Press
1999) 298-306.
3 ibid; Randall P Peerenboom, Chinas Long March Toward Rule of Law (CUP 2002) 8; Zhu (n 1).
4 Lubman (n 2).

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