Smart courts, smart justice? Automation and digitisation of courts in China

Papagianneas, S. (2024)

Doctoral Thesis

This dissertation examines the digitisation and automation of Chinese courts from 2013 until 2022. Occurring in parallel with a multitude of other judicial reforms, this dissertation argues that Marxist-Leninist ideological conceptions of the role of law and courts in governance facilitate the rapid embrace of automated technologies. They shape the adoption and deployment of these technologies as well as the consequences. The principal ideological conviction that drives smart court reform (SCR) is that the technologies of automation will turn justice administration into a real science, and that science will make adjudication fairer and more efficient. The digitisation and automation of courts reveal that there exists a pervasive conviction among China's intellectual and ruling elite that governance and justice need to be scientific, to be legitimate and fair. This conviction guides the digitisation and automation of all domains in China's political-legal system.
In addition, this dissertation argues that SCR has contradictory goals that seem difficult to reconcile. However, because of ideological conceptions, these goals are not seen as contradictory within the Chinese political-legal system itself.

• Chinese justice system
• Smart Court Reform
• Chinese courts
• Judicial Reform
• Automated Justice
• Digital Justice
• Judicial Fairness
• Smart Governance
• Rule of Law
• Law , Ideology

• All authors: Papagianneas, S.
• Supervisor: Bedner, A.W.; Hof, S. van der
• Co-supervisor: Creemers, R.J.E.H.
• Committee: Schneider, F.A.; Custers, B.H.M.; Trevaskes, S.; Huang, H.I.; Reiling, A.D.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2024-09-03