The Chinese court system has four levels: Primary, District or County People's Court, Intermediate People's Court, Higher People's Court, and Supreme People's Court.
2.
This article refers to my most recent attempt to observe a Chinese court case. An earlier attempt had failed miserably; it had been impossible to arrange in my tight schedule.
3.
In common law courts by contrast the dominant relationship is between the judge and the prosecutors and defence lawyers. The defendant in the common law court is as a result a bystander in many respects.
4.
We were later advised that there were 300 judges at that level in that court in Beijing and that a quota was used to ensure that women usually comprised one third of judges.
5.
The judges were not formally dressed in every respect. We later talked to a judge who was dressed in the official robes. But when I sat next to her I glanced down and saw she was wearing grey sneakers.
6.
While these provisions exist in the law it is not clear if in practice they are always honoured. For an introduction to the recent development of China's legal aid see ReganFrancis, ‘Legal Aid in China: An analysis of the development of policy’, (2004) Vol.24Civil Justice Quarterly, 169–186.
7.
Unlike sentencing discussions in common law cases neither the judge, the prosecutor or the defence lawyer mentioned any previous court cases or judicial rulings relating to theft, or of theft of bikes when the sentence was handed down.
8.
Of course improved performance by the lawyer would have been desirable but lawyer's performance can be a problem in all societies. It is also not a function of Chinese criminal procedures in court but rather is an unfortunate consequence of the current legal aid scheme.
9.
As I explained at the outset I did not observe a more serious criminal or political case. Such cases have been subject to a lot of criticism involving performance of China's police, prosecutors and its courts.
