Suing the government under weak rule of law: Evidence from administrative litigation reform in China

Guangyu Cao, Chenran Liu and Li-An Zhou

Journal of Public Economics, 2023, vol. 222, issue C

Abstract: There is a long-standing debate in the literature about the effectiveness of strengthening judicial independence in developing countries with weak rule of law. This paper exploits a recent Chinese judicial reform in administrative litigation, which changed the jurisdiction rule from intra-regional to trans-regional, to estimate the effects of improved judicial independence on protecting private entities against potential abuses of public authority. We find a significant increase in the probability of successfully suing local governments after the reform, especially when the defendants are more powerful government departments and when the plaintiffs are individual citizens with fewer legal resources than firms. But this effect is more limited for higher-level governments. The reform also results in increased case filings, prolonged trial time, and enhanced judicial quality. In addition, it raises the awareness of both governments and citizens about the rule of law, increases firm entry, and worsens general public attitudes toward local governments, at least in the short term. Our study highlights trans-regional jurisdiction as a new source of judicial independence in a party state and its potential limitations.

Keywords: Judicial Independence; Administrative Litigation; Trans-Regional Jurisdiction Reform; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H77 K41 P37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272723000774
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:222:y:2023:i:c:s0047272723000774

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104895

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Public Economics is currently edited by R. Boadway and J. Poterba

More articles in Journal of Public Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().