The Rise and Decline of the Reversal of the Burden of Proof in China's Medical Negligence Law: A Political Economy of Lawmaking Perspective
An issue of central importance to the medical negligence law reforms in China over the past decade is the allocation of the burden of proof between the plaintiff patient and the defendant medical care provider in medical negligence actions. From a political economy of lawmaking perspective, this article examines the evolution of the burden of proof rules, with a focus on the reversal rule developed by the judiciary. Drawing extensively on firsthand legislative materials, this article argues that the successful lobbying of the medical profession in the legislative process leading to the enactment of the 2010 Tort Liability Law explains the nonadoption of a full-blown reversal of the burden of proof rule for medical negligence actions in the law.
Reasons for the preventive shift of Chinese criminal law : using the eighth amendment as a case study
......................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ........................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. viii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... ix List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... x Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... xi Dedication ................................................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Chinese Landscape ................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 10 1.2.1 Chinese Scholarship .............................................................................................. 10 1.2.2 Western Scholarship ............................................................................................. 18 1.3 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 25 1.4 Dissertation Structure ................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 2: Recent Reforms in Chinese Criminal Law and Their Implications ................... 40 2.1 Conceptualization of “Crime Prevention” ................................................................... 40 2.1.1 Crime Prevention in the Chinese Context ............................................................. 40 2.1.2 Crime Prevention in the Western Context ............................................................ 44 2.2 Three Case Studies: Based on 2011 Eighth Amendment to Criminal Law ................. 49 2.2.1 Three Offences in Chinese Criminal Law ............................................................ 51 v 2.2.1.1 Crime of Drunk Driving ................................................................................. 51 2.2.1.2 Crime of Manufacturing and Selling Fake Medications ................................ 55 2.2.1.3 Crime of Environmental Pollution ................................................................. 57 2.2.2 Similarities among the Changes ............................................................................ 59 2.2.3 Weak Constraints of the Law ................................................................................ 62 2.3 Analytical Framework of Risk Society and Its Limitations ......................................... 66 Chapter 3: The History of Lawmaking and Reasons for Applying the Multiple Streams Approach ..................................................................................................................................... 73 3.1 Legislative Initiative, Bill Passing and Final Amendments ......................................... 74 3.1.1 Amendment on the Crime of Drunk Driving ........................................................ 74 3.1.2 Amendment on the Crime of Manufacturing and Selling Fake Medications ....... 77 3.1.3 Amendment on the Crime of Environmental Pollution ........................................ 80 3.2 Applying John Kingdon’s Theory into the Chinese Context ....................................... 82 Chapter 4: Problem Stream for Chinese Criminal Law Making ........................................... 94 4.1 Studies of Nationally-known Cases as Focusing Events ............................................. 95 4.1.1 Three Case Studies ................................................................................................ 96 4.1.2 The Public, the Media and the Government ....................................................... 100 4.2 Opinions of Netizens on Focusing Events and Chinese Criminal Law ..................... 104 4.2.1 Rapid Growth of the Chinese Internet: Social Landscape .................................. 104 4.2.2 Netizen Opinions on Focusing Events ................................................................ 107 4.3 Public Sense of Security in the Surveys .................................................................... 111 4.3.1 Public Sense of Security: Based on Survey Results ........................................... 112 4.3.2 Reasons for Public Satisfaction and Divergence with Internet Sentiment ......... 118 vi 4.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 126 Chapter 5: Policy Stream for Chinese Criminal Law Making ............................................. 130 5.1 Roles of the Specialists in the Policy Stream ............................................................. 132 5.1.1 Proposal Drafting Specialists: the Policy Entrepreneurs .................................... 133 5.1.2 Policy Stream: As a Response to Public Opinions in China ............................... 139 5.2 Legal Concerns of the Proposals ................................................................................ 143 Chapter 6: Political Stream for Chinese Criminal Law Making: Role of the CCP and the Bureaucracy ............................................................................................................................... 151 6.1 The Role of the CCP in Chinese Criminal Law Making ........................................... 153 6.2 The Role of Other Participants in the Legislative Process ........................................ 160 6.2.1 The NPC .............................................................................................................. 161 6.2.2 The Judicial System ............................................................................................ 165 6.2.3 The Administration ............................................................................................. 171 6.2.4 The Media ........................................................................................................... 177 6.2.5 The Legal Experts ............................................................................................... 183 6.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 189 Chapter 7: The Role of the State in the Criminal Justice System: Through a Comparative Perspective ................................................................................................................................. 197 7.1 Risk Control in the Western Criminal Justice System ............................................... 198 7.1.1 Conceptualizing Risk in the Western Criminal Justice System .......................... 198 7.1.2 State’s Role of Risk Control in the Western Social Context .............................. 201 7.2 Risk Control in the Chinese Criminal Justice System ............................................... 206 7.2.1 The “It works” Belief on Criminal Justice in China ........................................... 206 vii 7.2.2 The Chinese Mixed Problem-solving Approach ................................................. 215 7.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 218 Chapter 8: Policy Window of the Chinese Criminal Law Making and the Conclusion ..... 220 8.1 Legal Renewal: Easily Opened Windows for Law Reforms ..................................... 222 8.1.1 Frequent Coupling of the Streams ...................................................................... 222 8.1.2 Two Important Streams for Legal Renewals ...................................................... 225 8.1.2.1 Public Influences: Public Mood and Public Participation ........................... 225 8.1.2.2 Political Influences: Focusing on Social Stability and Public Security ....... 230 8.2 Reflections of the Chinese Criminal Justice .............................................................. 234 8.2.1 Will Authoritarian Regime Necessarily Lead to Harsh Penalties? ..................... 234 8.2.2 Is China an Exclusive or Inclusive Society? ....................................................... 238 8.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 240 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 244
The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice ten years on: Successes and future challenges under the Stockholm Programme. CEPS Paperbacks. June 2010
This book celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) by bringing together the views of key practitioners and policy-makers who have played an outstanding role in thinking about and shaping EU policies on freedom, security and justice. 
 
Ten years ago, the member states transferred competences to the EU for law and policy-making in the fields of immigration, asylum and border controls, and began the transfer process for criminal justice and policing. This decade of European cooperation on AFSJ policies has experienced very dynamic convergence, the enactment of a large body of European law and the setting-up of numerous EU agencies working in these domains. Such dynamism in policy-making has not been without challenges and vulnerabilities, however. As this collective volume shows, the main dilemmas that lie ahead relate to an effective (while more plural) institutional framework under the Treaty of Lisbon, stronger judicial scrutiny through a greater role for national courts and the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, better mechanisms for evaluating and monitoring the implementation of EU AFSJ law and a more solid fundamental rights strategy. The contributions in this volume address the progress achieved so far in these policy areas, identify the challenges for future European cooperation in the AFSJ and put forward possible paths for making more progress in the next generation of the EU’s AFSJ.