The Leadership of China's Supreme People's Court

Abstract

The Supreme People’s Court of China has been playing a pivotal role in the development of a new pattern of governance in China whereby the law is used to settle new societal, economic and political issues. The Court’s leadership is important given the professional weakness of China’s court system. The Court is moving away from an earlier reform emphasis on “judicial independence”, as “trial independence”, to focus on the supervision of the judiciary under the Court’s new motto “the three paramounts”, referring to Party leadership, the people’s interests and the constitution. This paper examines the Court’s current “reform” direction with a view to exploring the rule of law and human rights implications of Court leadership.