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30 Mich. St. Int'l L. Rev. 417 (2022)
Relational Justice: Reconciling Murder in China

handle is hein.journals/mistjintl30 and id is 431 raw text is: RELATIONAL JUSTICE: RECONCILING MURDER IN CHINA Michelle Miao* This paper analyses and theorizes the quasi-judicial practices surrounding offender- victim reconciliation in murder cases in China. It found that this money-for-life process was enabled and shaped by, respectively, the role of the state, market forces and socio-cultural ties amongst individuals. Using the concept of relational justice, the paper explains that interpersonal networks underpin the conception of justice in China. This nexus between relations and justice may explain why the judicial regulation of social conflicts focuses on the repair and restoration of social relations. The paper also illustrates that the economic transformations in China during the past decades led to the commodification of interpersonal relations. In this way, the paper provides an alternative approach for understanding the conception, process, and function of justice in contemporary China. Rather than merely focusing on the concept of rule of law as a measurement of good governance, this paper explains why the notion of rule by relations might be also useful to articulate the logic of China's judicial realism. * Associate Professor, the Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong. rmihe leiaoacuhkredu.hk. This paper was written during my ten- ure at Harvard Yenching Institute in 2019-2020. I am deeply indebted to the guidance and feedback provided by Professor William Alford.