Sept. 18.
Mr, Chu Cheng, a graduate of the Tokyo Law College, former Journalist and a notable reorganizer of Kuomintang machinery, appro priately gave the important Judicial Conference, which opened at Nanking on Monday, his. views on the progress of judicial reform. He has been President of the Judicial Yuan for four years and he has had the satisfaction of seeing that organ resume its control of the Ministry of Justice during his term of offic. This resumption. took. place last October, thus relieving the Executive Yuan of responsibilites accepted under the orders of the National Government from January, 1932. So the Conference of two hundred jurists is able to apply itself to the vital issues of Judicial administration with nearly 4 year's experience of direct contact between the Courts and the expert organ of the Government, It will be generally agreed that the take of building up a new judicial system under the Republic has been heavy. The revolutionary phase of the Government's existence has even now not been com-Pleted: Consequently judicial practice has been exposed to the disturbing influences of executive exigency. When therefore eminent jurists confer on the question of Judicial "reform, they cannot, Altogether avoid 'a sense of reality. Mr. Chu Cheng's speech boldly' recognized the dimtculties confronting his colleagues. He pointed out that the Criminal Code and the Codes of Civil and Crizainal Procedure had been subjected to several revisions and that the Civil Code had only recently been com: pleted. Apart from these considera ons, he reminded the jurists assembled that there was great room for reform; litigation had increased, and many malpractices" had still to be eliminated, The Conference, composed as it is of trained judice officers, may be expected to con rlbute usefully to the development Sustice. of a healthily operating system of
'The genesis of the Conference deserves mention. Mr. Chu Cheng some time ago moved' the Government to depute three high affeers of the judicial service to visit Europe and America and Japan for the purpose of studying the systems {n force in other countries, Mr. Tan Shen, the Vice-President of th Judicial Yuan, visited America and Europe. Mr. 'Shih Chih-chuan, a former' Vice-Minister of Judicial Administration, and Mr. Hung Wen-lan, @ Departmental Director of the same department, were sent to Japan. These three deputations all returned with what Mr. Chu Cheng described as "valuable proposals for the Government's consideration." To supplement the information thus provided with expert assessment of the actual working of the judicial system in China, Mr. Wang Yung-pin made a four of inspection in the North in his capacity as Minister of Judicial Administration, Material "having thus been carefully collected and summarized, it was decided to summon the present Conference for Aiscussion of the problems involved.' The agenda is heavy and no doubt, many of ts proposals are in advance of the present capacity of, the administration to put them Into! effect. "There i, for example, the difficult question of finance, That has already seriously retarded the construction of court houses and the training of judicial personnel. Progress must therefore be slow, but it is all to the good that these experts in conference are given the opportunity of expressing their views for thie guidance, Mr. Chu Cheng emphatically endorsed the modern rejection of safeguard, however prompted by the Confucian conception of law. /solicitude for the principle of self-In taking as his first principle the progressive and non-static character of jurisprudence, he definitely fol~ describe as the Han Fei theory. Confucius and those who followed him broadly took the view that the people should work out their own, salvation and that the less interference by officials the better. In many respects this by no means impractical doctrine still inspires the primary institutions of this country and has, probably, been a Powerful factor in enabling the People to endure the economic, social and political vieissrtudes to which they have been exposed. So there is ground for the view of the old-time statesman, Shu Hsiany who, maintaining that the people's ignorance of the precise significance of the law was a valuable means of ensuring their disciplined obedience to authority, asked What need is there for any code? When once the people know the g@ounds for contention, they will east propriety away, and. make their appeal to your descriptions. They will be contending about a matter as small as the point of an awl or a knife. Disorderly litiga tons will multiply, and bribes will he is about to perish, there will be many new enactments in it, ("Reconstruction in China": Tang Leong-ti)
It must be confessed that if Shu Hsiang, from his place in the Shades, could contemplate _the resent condition of the world, to say nothing of China, he might be inclined to murmur: "I told you 30," Under modern conditions and with the complexity which they introduce into all activities of life, it would be difficult to proceed on the principle that "the more laws, the more law-breakers," literally, true though it may be. So Han Fei's contention that the wise man cannot set up measures for all time and that the efficacy of a law lies in its ability to "meet practical modern needs is accepted as better suited to the requirements of modern China. It is to be hoped, however, that the jurists will be ible to form some opinion on the extent to which the process of lawmaking should be limited to the bare exigencies of the moment. There is a tendency for reforming]!F™ zeal to develop into a passion for enshrining its ambitions in statutes, before the necessary conditions demanded for the proper fulfilment, of the principles thus endorsed bbe brought into existence. The law should be in advance of public opinion but not so greatly in advance that it is reduced to sim-potence. Ideals are inconvenient Substitutes for redress of abuses. Static the science of jurisprudence may not be, but the dynamic technique should be carefully attuned to the realities of the gener administration and its relations with the people. No doubt this important thought will find due expression in the course of the learned debates at Nanking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.