]Max Weber described as “Khadi justice.”3 Therefore, China had neither a group of well-trained legal professionals nor a judicial procedure in which professional legal knowledge could be applied in dispute resolution. The centralized ruling tradition contributed to Chinese people’s lack of familiarity with judicial independence.
　
　
　
　In the process of building a modern state in the twentieth century, China established a modern state system by imitating those in the western countries. However, it was easier to change the surface structure of the system than to change the actual operational methods and processes. The new system introduced into China was distorted under the influence of the traditional forces. Take the judicial system as an example. Although China has established a court system independent of the administrative organs and clearly provided for the independence of the court in the Constitution, neither the international environment nor the internal political aims were conducive to fully implementing a constitutional system embodying the principle of judicial independence. More importantly, the social consciousness and the concrete knowledge supporting such independence have not been extensively established in Chinese society and the development of the legal profession and legal education have suffered many setbacks. All these have led to a situation in which the independence of the court exists only in name.4
　
　
　
　Such a sharp contrast between the system on the paper and its operation in practice is also the main obstacle faced by China today in the implementation of judicial reform. The independence of the court means, above all, independence in personnel and financial affairs. In practice, however, the court is controlled by the partyParty committee and the government at the same level in these important matters.5 Just imagine: if the court is not independent in matters of finance and the selectionappointment of judges, how can it be expected to be independent in judicial decision-making?6 If the law has promised judicial independence, the parties to the lawsuit naturally have reason to expect the court to turn this promise into reality in its judicial decision-making. However, due to the local control over judicial organs, in a case that involves parties from different localities but able to be tried only by the court of the locality of one of the parties, the local court is liable to unfairly favor the party from its own locality. This will inevitably increase public dissatisfaction with the judicial performancesystem. The best way to solve this problem is perhaps to set up a system of judicial jurisdictdivisions different from that of administrative jurisdictdivisions, thereby separating the judicial power from administrative and legislative power of the same level. This is the most basic guarantee of judicial independence.

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