Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 6, 2025

On the Moderate Re-Emotionalization of Judicial Decision Making

(Abstract)

Du Yanlin

Ensuring that people perceive fairness and justice in every judicial case is a major political task assigned by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, for judicial decision making in the new era. This requires judicial decision makers to adjudicate with compassion and empathy for the people. Achieving this demands a shift in judicial decision making from a “de-emotionalized” approach toward one of “re-emotionalization.” However, this process must clarify and demonstrate the positive correlation between “re-emotionalization” and judicial fairness. As a central concept in the affective domain, empathy is undoubtedly the most important topic for examination and reflection. Both its cognitive and emotional dimensions are attuned to the subtle judgments and moral deliberations inherent in case-specific justice, facilitating the tangible experience of “perceiving case justice.” For China, with its rich tradition of “zhongshu”—meaning loyalty and understanding others—this provides new intellectual resources to critically reflect on the inherent limitations of Western-style rule of law. Moreover, it offers profound insight for transcending the modern legal theory’s “emotion/reason dichotomy” and for forging a Chinese model of judicial adjudication, thereby advancing a path toward the modernization of the rule of law suited to China’s unique context.