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"Rule of law" is really a spectrum. China may be toward the arbitrary end, but maybe not as much as we'd like to believe. Prosecutors in the US have enormous
by gozur88 9y ago
"Rule of law" is really a spectrum. China may be toward the arbitrary end, but maybe not as much as we'd like to believe. Prosecutors in the US have enormous power, which is why 98% of US federal cases are pled out.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoTotally, though that most cases are pled out says nothing about the cases that never are. An overzealous prosecutor can be beat down by a judge in the USA at least. In china, there is no real difference between prosecutor and judge, someone makes a decision somewhere and that's it. The only recourse is bad publicity. Rule of law is a spectrum, but we are talking about drastically different ends of it. What's more, rule of law is not even a goal for the Chinese government, who think an independent power-checking judiciary is unnecessary given that the CCP only consists of wise and uncorrupt officials.