Stories of Court Judgments

Name: Stories of Court Judgments
ISBN: 9787509393451

周恺China Legal Publishing House · ChinaAug 2018

3.5

Word count: 104K words
Chapters: 44
ISBN: 9787509393451

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Summary

This is a book about judgments, and also a book about justice. Judgments are, in fact, legal documents, and legal documents are a field of study strikingly short of examples. Some speculative theories have virtually no supporting examples and merely keep changing formats. It would not be excessive to call such theories castles in the air. This book collects influential or intriguing judgments from ancient times and evaluates and compares judgments from antiquity to the present. These little-studied areas of law are presented through a literary approach, which carries some value for popularization. It is hoped that the literary quality and readability of this book will bring a breath of fresh air to the administration of justice.

Editor's review

Taking judgments as its entry point, this book brings ancient legal documents out of the archives, evaluating each piece and comparing them with later judgments. Judgments are highly concrete texts in judicial practice, yet have long lacked case-based study; seizing on this gap, the author uses a literary approach to present the reasoning methods, rhetorical strategies, and marks of their eras in judgments, letting readers see how judicial documents balance legal principle and human sensibility. The judgments selected are either influential or richly interesting, and the commentary avoids piling on jargon and emphasizes readability, giving the book value for both popularization and study. Reading it, one can feel the expressive wisdom of ancient judicial officials and also reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of reasoning in today's judicial decisions. It suits readers interested in legal history and judicial culture as an introductory work, and also suits drafters of legal documents seeking inspiration for reasoning and expression. Note that the book emphasizes commentary and comparison rather than offering a systematic general history of judgments; readers should not expect the systematicity of a textbook.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers of history and literature interested in ancient justice and legal documents
Legal professionals seeking to improve judicial reasoning and document expression
Law students focusing on legal history and judicial culture
General readers who enjoy legal subjects written in a literary style

Not a good fit for

Specialist researchers seeking a general history of judgments or systematic study of a single period
Practitioners expecting practical litigation techniques and operational guides
Readers who prefer strict academic conventions and reject literary expression

Reading tips

Read in the order of the book's contents; after each judgment, first consider its reasoning logic yourself before reading the commentary.
Keep a notebook to excerpt striking reasoning sentences from judgments and compare them with expressions in today's judicial documents.
For judgments of interest, look up the original texts and related historical sources to learn more about their era and judicial system.
Drafters of legal documents can try imitating the reasoning structures of the judgments in short writing exercises.

About the publisher

China Legal Publishing House China · Founded in 1989

China Legal Publishing House is a legal publisher overseen and sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, with the publication of standard texts of national laws and regulations as an important focus; its catalogue already contains 2,972 titles. Its publications cover fields such as criminal law, civil law, contract law, company law, real estate law and the security system, including article-by-article commentaries such as the Interpretation of the Contract Part of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, adjudication rules and case compilations oriented toward judicial practice such as Understanding and Applying Adjudication Rules in Contract Disputes and A Compendium of Court Views on Real Estate Cases, as well as legal classics such as On Crimes and Punishments and academic works such as The Theory of Procedural Sanctions. In terms of author resources, the publisher brings together classic legal authors such as Cesare Beccaria, scholars and practitioners such as Liu Junhai, Long Weiqiu and Zhu Shuying, and cooperates with institutions including the National Judges College and the Judicial Case Research Institute of the Supreme People's Court. Its publishing character lies in linking legal texts, scholarly interpretation and judicial application, balancing authoritative norms with practical guidance.

版权信息
法律文书能否写得更好看？
长河遗珠
谁湮没于长河？
有才无德的张鷟和他的《龙筋凤髓判》
以理见长：白居易《甲乙判》
“飞火”的传票
古代判词最高峰：《清明集》
猜想的翅膀
头颅的争夺
法庭上的表现能做证据吗？
说“状”
最美的判词：胭脂判
裁判文书的署名
说“批词”
老吏叹
有点儿迷信的法官
汉代的指导性案例
“散判”第一人
猜：法官的基本功
因奸射射
一案三判
海瑞说情理
皇太极与多铎的政治案
溥仪的两份通知书
证书
“执其两端而用其中”
讲故事的辩护词
谁知道杨兆龙？
质朴的孤岛：陕甘宁边区的判词
民国打庭长案
今昔对比
张船山的名判与周院长的解释
念斌案与杨乃武案的文书比较
说“瞻徇”
契与合同
唐代的泄密案
杂说遗嘱
杀死强奸者
猜大儒董仲舒会怎么判许霆案？
烈火真金
附录1：格式与文意——试论我国裁判文书的改革的基本思路
附录2：表意与炼意——增强法律文书说理性
后记

FAQ

Is this book an academic monograph or a popular work?

It is closer to a commentary work with popularizing value. The author evaluates and compares judgments with a research perspective, but the writing emphasizes literary quality and readability and does not follow strict academic conventions, so general readers can read it smoothly.

Do I need a foundation in classical Chinese to read this book?

The commentary and explanation of the judgments reduce reading barriers to some extent, but since the original judgments are in classical Chinese, some ability to read classical Chinese will make it easier to appreciate their rhetoric and reasoning.

Is this book helpful for legal document writing today?

It offers inspiration. The way judgments balance facts, legal principle, and human sensibility within limited space still has reference value for expression in today's judicial decisions and lawyers' documents, but the book is not a writing tutorial; readers must distill and adapt its lessons themselves.

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About the author

周恺 Author

Zhou Kai is a Chinese author about whom relatively limited public information is available; his nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background have not been clearly recorded. Judging from the two works held in the collection, A Sheet of Judgment and The Story of Judgment Texts, his writing centers mainly on legal subjects while also touching on literary appreciation. The former, as its title suggests, appears to deal with judicial judgment documents, while the latter focuses on the textual interpretation and appreciation of judgment texts, showing the author's attention to the language of legal documents and the narrative interest they contain. This approach, linking law with literary appreciation, gives his works a degree of readability and humanistic flavor beyond the popularization of legal knowledge. Overall, Zhou Kai writes for general readers, attempting to present professional texts such as judgments in an accessible style, giving his work a distinctive place among popular legal writings of its kind.