The Interpretation of Law by the Judge in China

Imperial China developed a strong tradition of codified law judges had to faith fully implement. Judges were only given little room to interpret law and judicial decisions were subject to strict monitoring through the channel of administrative review. Nevertheless, when facing situations for which statutory law did not provide solutions, judges may have had recourse to analogy to avoid crimes going unpunished. It was possible for innovative decisions to be integrated into statutory law through a special process of review. As a consequence of these constraints on legal interpretation, statutory law was overdeveloped and took into account too many petty details, introducing potential discrepancies into the legal order.