The next seminar of the 10th Year Greater China Legal History Seminar Series organised by CUHK LAW titled "Crying for Justice: The Impact of Public Opinion on the Local Judiciary during Ming" will be delivered by Dr. Ka-chai TAM, Associate Professor, Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University on 10 January 2025.
About the seminar: The local judicial court of Ming China is basically an open system, as judicial procedures are all open to the public without much restrictions. Although there are requirements of solemn silence for the observers, but no strict restrictions are enforced to prohibit the family members and neighbours of the two sides to cry for justice. In the due course of the hearing, the observing neighbours of the accused sometimes might also be summoned to comment and even guarantee the integrity of the accused, so that the judge might measure the degree of punishments accordingly. Moreover, after the local courts made the decision, the case should usually be submitted to higher courts for review, and in the meantime the judges often would post their reports of the case in front of the gate of the court, and therefore the two sides and the public could understand the decisions and undertake their respective follow-up actions. By exposing the judicial process to the public, the Ming judicial system on one hand prevents the personal domination of the judge, on the other hand is a design to invite the common people to be involved in the judiciary. This talk employs the judicial reports collected in late Ming times to investigate how the local judges' decisions might have been influenced by the openness of their courts, as well as how they dealt with the contradictions among the principles of the law, the materials evidences, witness reports and the public opinions of the locality.
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