The Rule of Bureaucracy: A Reflection on Chinese Criminal Justice

The Rule of Bureaucracy: A Reflection on Chinese Criminal Justice
Yu Zhang
May 2016

ISBN-13:  978-1-59332-809-2 / Hardcover
Dimensions:  5.5 x 8.5 / xii, 240 pages

Price   $75.00

Description

Zhang argues that the Chinese Criminal Justice syste constitutes rule of bureaucracy rather than rule of law. The work looks into the underlying causes of the lack of genuine rule of law in China, and identifies the major barrier: an omnipotent political bureaucracy. The long history of Chinese Mandarin bureaucracy has given rise to the habitual practice of relying on executive authority for justice rather than providing for the pursuit of justice through a system of courts. The judiciary in China has to cope with both indirect and direct challenges from the all political bureaucracy, and it lacks the social and institutional standing to provide any genuine measure of judicial independence in defense of the rule of law. While change is taking place in the direction of judicial independence and the rule of law, that change is slow in and progress often comes at great cost to those brave lawyers fighting for it.

About the Author

Yu Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and sociology at Jackson State University. She received her law degree (LL.B.) from China University of Political Science (P.R. China) and her PhD in criminology and Public Policy from Northeastern University (U.S.A). Her primary teaching and research interests include comparative criminology/criminal justice, policing and quantitative methodology. She has participated in several international and national research projects as a research analyst. She is currently working on the application of computational methods in social science, including social media data analysis.