The Global Problem of Case-Judge Imbalance

This chapter primarily utilizes official statistical data from various countries to conduct an empirical analysis of the caseloads and judicial personnel allocation within the court systems of the United States, Japan, and China over recent decades. The analysis examines both the total number of cases handled by each country’s judiciary and changes in the average caseload per judge. Based on this empirical study of official statistics, the chapter identifies key characteristics of contemporary Chinese court caseloads. While there has been a significant increase in caseloads in China from a longitudinal perspective, the volume of cases in Chinese courts is not higher than that of the U.S. federal courts or the Japanese court system.