Roscoe Pound And The Nanjing Government's Judicial Reform

During the Nanking National Government period, with the establishment of the modern six -law system, the focus of modernization of law has changed from legislative movement to in-depth reform of judicial systems. Though the Nanking National Government has achieved certain success in judicial reform, the judicial development has been greatly hampered by many undeniable drawbacks, such as the unstable judicial environment, the vacant system construction and the traditional ideology that interferes with judicial independence to a large extent. Referring to the European and American experience, Roscoe Pound's idea of judicial development based on the thought of Sociolological Law becomes the ideal choice for the National Government to break away from the judicial difficulty with.In the July of 1946, Pound visited China as the legal adviser to the National Government on invitation. In the following two short years, he took active participation in the judicial reform of China under the guidance of the thought of social law. Firstly, he provided the theoretical framework for the judicial reform. The "society orientation" idea of Pound's social law is compatible in form with the "nation orientation" of the National Government's Three People's Principles. His theories of the "social control of law" and the "social engineering of law" are conducive to the unification and all-round development of judicature through judicial reform based on strengthening social control. Secondly, Pound proposed the integral conception of furthering judicial reform in the light of the reality in China. From the macro-perspective of comparative approach, Pound believed that China should start from the succeeding development pattern of Continental Law System and promote the legal development in integrating legislation and judicature fundamentally, following the experience of Anglo-American Law System. From the concrete practice of judicial reform, Pound regarded Chinese judicial reform as a huge "social engineering". He thought that the further development of judicial reform should possess unified legal interpretation and works, make full use of legal professionals in the reform, set up the perfect legal education, foster sufficient legal talents, and finally establish a good developing environment for judicial reform. At last, Pound participated in the practice of judicial reform actively. Through the contact and acquaintance with Chinese judicial situation, he made every effort to implement the thoughts of social law and bring the judicial reform scheme of it into practice.Pound's efforts in the judicial reform of China have achieved positive effects to some extent. However, the autocratic sovereignty of Kuomintang Government and the failure of constitutionalism movement made it difficult to create a favorable political environment for the judicial reform; the party-involved judicatory and dissimilation of social and political structures had seriously obstructed judicial independence; the differences between Chinese and western legal culture were so huge that it was difficult to reconcile them on the basis of realistic society. All the above-mentioned reasons led to the superficiality of Pound's legal reform programs which eventually vanished like soap bubbles with the collapse of Nanjing National Government's dominion. Looking back on the history of Chinese judicial reform in the 20th century, Pound's involvement in Chinese judicature remains historically significant and thought-provoking.