Civil Litigation in China and Europe

• Author: G. Molinaro
• Position: Independent (Milan, Italy)
• Pages: 156-159

BOOK REVIEW NOTES

CIvIL LITIgaTIon In ChIna and EuRoPE1

GABRIELE MOLINARO,

Independent

(Milan, Italy)

The powers of the judge in civil proceedings had, for a long time, been considered

only before the distorting mirror of ideological approaches: the choice in favour of

a more or less active role of the judge was considered as a mere implication of the

general policy of a particular State and a means, among others, to enforce such

policy. As many know, in the last decades the scholars in procedural law have chosen

a more realistic approach. The so-called ‘case management’ is more and more often

looked at as the point of balance between the search for ecient procedures and

the need for a quality decision.

The thread running through Civil Litigation in China and Europe is exploring how and

why, with a few exceptions, the modern reforms of civil procedure in the world tend to

increase the procedural eciency providing for enough judicial ‘managerial’ powers,

even though with the constant worry to avoid harming the fundamental principles

of party disposition and of the impartiality of the judge. The second, though not less

important, goal of this collection of essays is to provide both Chinese and European

scholars with information on each other’s procedural system in the English language,

thus facilitating research that is often rendered nearly impossible by language barriers.

As the two editors Remco van Rhee and Fu Yulin explain in the rst introductory

chapter, the book is also intended for the law reformers who want to explore the

multiple ways of improving judicial case management in their own countries.

The book is divided into seven parts, belonging to the original research project,

sponsored by the European Union and the People’s Republic of China, which deal

with I – China: Mainland, II – China: Hong Kong, III – Austria & Germany, IV – Croatia,

1 Reviewed book: Civil Litigation in China and Europe: Essays on the Role of the Judge and the Parties

(= 31 Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice) (C.H. (Remco) van Rhee & Fu Yulin,

eds.) (Springer 2014).