Suing the Government Under Independent Jurisdiction : Evidence from Administrative Litigation Reform in China

Utilizing China's ``Trans-Regional Jurisdiction'' Reform in administrative litigation that started in 2014, the paper uses the difference-in-differences identification strategy to estimate the effects of improved judicial independence on protecting the rights of the private sector against potential abuses of government. We find a significant increase in the government losing probability after the reform, especially for the cases in which defendants are government departments with stronger power and plaintiffs are natural persons that are more fragile compared to legal persons. The reform also results in better acceptance of judgments and growing number of case filings, at the cost of prolonging trial periods. Moreover, we also discover that the reform raises both governments and citizens' legal awareness, while also leads to side effect (at least in the short run) that public's attitude toward local governments are worsened and firm entry is slowed-down