Court finance centralisation and its challenges

Courts in China have long been plagued with financial difficulties. Acute insufficiency in funding has hampered court operations, caused delays in case processing and compromised judicial justice. Since 1949, China's court finance has experienced five different models. This chapter examines the developments in court finance and the challenges therein, with a focus on the latest reforms initiated in 2014. The reforms involve the centralisation of local court finance to the provincial level with the aim to sever local courts from local influence. In practice, close to half of all provinces have not accomplished the required changes, and more than half of all court expenditure continues, to date, to rely upon local governments. A direct cause is that provincial governments lack sufficient and sustainable fiscal capacity to finance the operation of local courts without central assistance. Tensions between the objectives of fiscal adequacy pursued by the judiciary and fiscal management efficiency by finance bureaus also add to coordination problems and challenges, and reveal the deeper institutional issues underlying the health of court finance in China.