Beyond Law and Politics: An Empirical Study of Judicial Mediation in China

Summary

Based on interviews with judges in six courts across three Chinese cities at different stages of economic development, this article examines the factors beyond formal law and politics that shape judicial behaviour in mediation. It explores the latitude Chinese judges exercise when resolving disputes through mediation rather than adjudication, and weighs the efficiency gains associated with judicial mediation against the procedural safeguards owed to litigants. Moving beyond accounts that explain the practice chiefly through political imperatives or formal rules, the article documents how judges’ own attitudes, the incentives they face and the local context of their courts produce markedly varied practices. It assesses those practices along both substantive and procedural dimensions, identifying where mediation improves dispute resolution and where it risks compromising the protection of parties, and contributes an empirically grounded account to comparative scholarship on judicial behaviour.