Based on empirical investigation and an interdisciplinary approach, this book offers a crucial theoretical work on China's basic-level judicial system and a masterpiece by Professor Suli Zhu, a prominent jurist on modern China. Its primary goal is to identify issues - ones that can only be effectively sensed and raised by China's jurists because of their unique circumstances and cultural background - that are of practical significance in China's basic-level judicial system, and of theoretical significance to juristic systems in general. Divided into four parts, the book begins with a discussion of the systematic and theoretical problems in China's basic-level judicial system at the macro-, meso- and micro- scale. In the second part, it examines the technology and knowledge to be found in the basic-level judicial system, so as to make the traditionally "invisible" technology and knowledge of trial judges available for general theoretical analyses. The thirdpart focuses on the judge and other legal personnel in the judicial system, while the last part discusses the value of legal sociology surveys as powerful resources. This book not only presents essential features of China's judicial system by precisely describing key issues in its basic-level judicial system, but also offers well-founded content that accentuates the significance of social management innovation.

Inhalt
Introduction: Research on China's Justice at the Basic Level.- Part I: Judicial System.- Chapter One: Why Send Law to the Countryside?.- Chapter Two: Court Trial and its Administration.- Chapter Three: The Judicial Committee System in Basic-Level Courts.- Part II: Judicial Knowledge and Technology.- Chapter Four: Courts of First Instance and Appellate Court.- Chapter Five: Dispute Settlement and Governance of Rules.- Chapter Six: Inbetween Facts and Laws.- Chapter Seven: Between Statute and Custom.-Chapter Eight: Delivery of Judicial Knowledge of Basic-Level Judges.- Part III: Judges and Legal Personnel.- Chapter Nine: Legal Personnel in Rural Society.-Chapter Ten: Professionalism of Judges in Basic-Level Courts.- Part IV: Reflection on Research Method.- Chapter Eleven: Power Resources of Legal Sociology Surveys.