Does China Achieve the Goal of Treating Like Cases Alike? Evidence from the Judicial Documents of China

Download Paper

Author: Mingyang Chen

Abstract: Treating like cases alike is a chain that starts with the facts of the case, followed by reasoning, and then the verdict, which is a common pursuit among legal professionals. This study focuses on the variable of reasoning, examining whether the effect of consistent judgment for similar cases exists in practice. By employing NLP, the study uses DTM, Cosine Similarity, and Euclidean distance methods to analysis 523 judicial documents from China. Three quantitative models are then constructed to explore the relationship between these three elements. The study finds that: 1. The higher the case similarity, the higher the reasoning similarity. 2. There is no significant correlation between reasoning and sentences differences. 3. There is also no significant correlation between case similarity and sentences differences. Overall, Chinese judicial practice has not yet achieved the effect of consistent judgment for similar cases. That is a result of professional training as a judge and extralegal factors. This paper puts forward a new method to estimate biased judgements.