China The current state of the Chinese legal system is in flux. To instate a system similar to that in the United States or Western Europe means undoing thousands of years of cultural norms. Confucianism and Communism are currently entwined to influence the ways disputes have been settled. Mounting pressure to develop a "fair and transparent framework of laws" stems directly from the fact that China is inextricably engaged with foreign businesses that need the rule of law in order to operate efficiently and effectively in the Middle Kingdom. Economic development is prompting overhauls of China's key political and social institutions: and the judiciary is one of the most fundamental such institutions to receive attention. Although some progress has been made already and continues to be made, it is slow and sometimes painful. As the PBS Wide Angle series presents, "the transformation" of China's judiciary from a traditional Confucian/Communist one towards a Western courts-based one is "incomplete." The judiciary is also "far from independent,"...

For example, the mobile court system depicted in the film allows villagers to have access to a small claims court, when they might otherwise settle disputes by taking the law into their own hands. However, it is law on a larger level that is of greater importance. Small claims court options make it so that the Chinese public becomes used to the court system in general, thereby making legal action more normative than it is currently. The introduction of court systems is already showing how the system works in a uniquely Chinese model, and what kinds of evidence are required in a trial.
One of the difficulties with implementing the necessary changes to China's judiciary is a lack of cohesive ethic. The Chinese model still "does not technically have an independent…