Zhengzhou railway station

law - Zhengzhou courts try to introduce precedents

One of the key differences between the Chinese law system and more developed judicial frameworks is that the system of precedents is not working. Normally, a verdict in one court should be in line with other verdicts and higher courts are mainly checking whether that is the case.
In China that never worked, for obvious reasons, since nobody was able to know what was happening in other parts of the country. When I came to China I met a maritime lawyer who wanted to set up a library with all the Chinese magazines on maritime law, so he would at least have one place in China with a comprehensive overview of this section of the law. He gave up when he discovered China had at the time 156 publications on maritime law: nobody would be able to even read all those publications.
The Chinese Law Prof Blog now reports about an experiment in Zhengzhou to change that, sparking off a nationwide discussions among legal experts. It was caused when somebody bought fake goods in three different jurisdictions, went to court and obtained three different verdicts. The court tried to do something about it.

According to the report, the court's adjudication committee selects particular cases it wants to serve as precedents (先例). The details of these cases are made available on an electronic touch-screen in the courthouse building. Visitors can then see whether the court has dealt with cases similar to their own and assess their chances of winning should they decide to file suit.

But opinions are very divided. A very instructive entry.