Description
Book SynopsisWhy are women still at a disadvantage in Chinese divorce courts?
Despite the increase of gender consciousness in Chinese society and a trove of legislation to protect women, why are Chinese women still disadvantaged in divorce courts? Xin He argues that institutional constraints to which judges are subject, a factor largely ignored by existing literature, play a crucial role. Twisting the divorce law practices are the bureaucratic incentives of courts and their political concerns for social stability. Because of these concerns, judges often choose the most efficient, and safest, way to handle issues in divorce cases. In so doing, they allow the forces of inequality in social, economic, cultural, and political areas to infiltrate their decisions. Divorce requests are delayed; domestic violence is trivialized; and women's child custody is sacrificed. The institutional failure to enforce the laws has become a major obstacle to gender justice.
Divorce in China is
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"I hope this book will ignite more thoughts on Chinese family justice reform and resolutions to present problems and also bring about creative ideas for family justice reforms in other Jurisdictions." * International Journal of Law, Policy and The Family *
"Xin He’s book is a monumental achievement— drawing on close observation of courts in two very different regions of China as well as a deep engagement with a broad range of scholarly literature, both China specific and more general, about gender, judging, authoritarianism and much more. Divorce in China will be a classic, both as concerns its immediate subject, and state and society in China in general." -- William P. Alford, Jerome A. and Joan L. Cohen Professor of East Asian Legal Studies, Harvard Law School
"An excellent and absorbing examination, based in substantial part on fieldwork sources, of the handling of divorce cases in China today. Xin He builds on his earlier impressive analyses of divorce litigation and gender to offer very important insights into law and gender in the People's Republic. In this important book he concludes that, sadly, the divorce decision-making process in and around the courts has tended to buttress rather than relieve long-standing prejudices against women in contemporary Chinese society. This study is essential reading for all those concerned with social and legal developments in the PRC today." -- Michael Palmer, University of London
"As the first monograph in English on divorce trials in China, this book should be warmly welcomed. It is a valuable source for reference and further research." * Feminist Legal Studies *
