Information Processing In The Compilation Of Chinese Guiding Cases

The Case Guidance System(CGS)is an unprecedented judicial reform in China,introducing the trial form of case-law feature into the modern Chinese legal system characterized by statute law.However,the compilation methods of the existing guiding cases(GCs)lack uniformity.Moreover,there is no strict standard about how to effectively select information and systematically organize the language,resulting in a lack of comprehensive and accurate guidance for high-quality compiling activities.To explore characteristics and means of information processing and give linguistic suggestions for future compilation of GCs,three relevant research questions are proposed in this study: Firstly,what are the sources of the information that is selected by the GCs from judicial opinions? Secondly,how is the selected information combined in the GCs? Thirdly,what are the strategies of information generalization in main points of the adjudication in GCs? This thesis adopts a qualitative research method,utilizes the Discourse Information Theory(DIT)as the theoretical foundation,integrates research results of summary writing and law on compilation methods to construct an analytical framework of information processing in the compilation of Chinese Guiding Cases(CGCs).Based on the DIT,this study has tagged 15 GCs and15 corresponding original judicial opinions at both macro and micro levels,and has further explored and summarized the information processing means and characteristics during the compilation.According to the analysis on foregoing GCs and relevant original judicial opinions,the research has discovered that the compilation of GCs primarily comprises two summarizations: the first is from judicial opinions to basic facts of the case,results of the adjudication and reasons for the adjudication,and the second summarization is main points of the adjudication.The two summarizations incorporate three information processing means: information selection,information combination,and information generalization.Firstly,information selection explicates the sources of the information that is selected by the GCs from judicial opinions,by analyzing information levels,information units,and information knots.And according to the characteristics of sources,the information source is divided into single source,multiple sources,and vacant source.Secondly,after the information is selected,part of the information needs to be combined.There are three concrete methods for information combination: information omission,information enrichment,and information re-organization.After information selection and information combination,the information content of GCs except for the main points of the judgment is basically determined.Eventually,the main points of the adjudication,as the most critical and refined part of GCs,are often a sentence or two in a highly generalized form.Thus,analyzing from micro-level information elements can explicitly elaborate information processing characteristics.The research has found that the three information elements Entity,Process,and Condition present the following characteristics: Entity categorization,Process uniformization,and Condition specification.This research will theoretically expand the application scope of the DIT,promoting its sensible integration with legal discourses.In practice,this research may provide references for future compilation of GCs from the linguistic perspective and may hopefully lay a foundation for the quality evaluation of GCs’ compilation and summary writing.