Abstract
The publication of decided cases, beginning in 1985, in the Gazette of the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China [hereinafter the Gazette]1 has attracted much attention from Western scholars. Some have regarded it as a valuable tool for understanding developments in the Chinese legal system in post-Mao China. Some scholars commented, on the one hand, that the Gazette is “[p]robably the most important new publication on law” in China, since it is the first time that the People’s Republic has published its decided cases. On the other hand, they expressed serious doubts as to “whether these cases have the force of precedents,” and “will be cited by judges in their decisions.” The conclusion these scholars reached was that “[t]hese published decisions do not … carry the force of precedent. They will be used only as models to help less experienced judges learn methods of legal reasoning.”