Research on Chinese judicial human rights discourse: a statistical analysis based on judicial judgement documents, 2004–2020

Human rights discourse is an important expression carrier of the concept of human rights. By searching Chinese judicial judgement documents (CJJDs), one can find that judges invoke the term ‘human rights’ for judgement reasoning and argumentation in litigation. As exercisers of public power, how judges express human rights in their decisions reflects China’s attitude toward protecting human rights in the judicial field, the availability of human rights remedies and the development and achievements of the cause of judicial protection of human rights. According to the form and purpose of judges’ invocation of ‘human rights’, it can be typified into five types of Chinese judicial human rights discourse (CJHRD) based on a sample of 751 CJJDs. Analysis of the specific context and content of CJHRD reveals its stability and fundamental principles. An in-depth analysis of the sources of the CJHRD reveals that it has a strong dependence on the human rights provisions or human rights discourse of laws, regulations and human rights documents. Meanwhile, the human rights discourse formed by judges’ use of ‘human rights’ in their reasoning reflects at least four human rights concepts that are recognised by China’s judiciary and transmitted to Chinese citizens through judicial channels.