Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2015

The Rational Interpretation and Construction of Judicial Credibility

(Abstract)

Hu Ming

In this age of We-Media, there has been a significant increase in the influence of public opinion upon judicial verdicts, leaving courts at the mercy of public opinion. Underlying this phenomenon is the problem of judicial credibility. As some influential lawsuits show, rational interpretation can identify, from amidst the variety of individual cases, the core factors affecting public assessment of criminal cases: both the internal factors centering on trust, reputation and interaction, and the external factors centering on transaction costs. A quantitative evaluation of the degree of public trust, confidence and interaction with the criminal justice system enables us to compare the differences in the public’s understanding and that of grassroots legal officials, revealing that a low level of judicial credibility arising from judicial violations underlies rational choice. The current judicial reform must strive to remedy these gaps in awareness and must adhere to the concepts of the rule of law and respect for judicial rules, with a view to developing good relations between the public and criminal justice.