Judicial trust suffers when local govt ignores court ruling

A 70-YEAR-OLD WOMAN sued the local government of Huayin city, northern China's Shaanxi province, for wrongly registering her property under the name of her son. The local government neither sent a representative to court, nor executed the court's ruling which went against it. Why not introduce a compulsory enforcement system against such powerful institutions, asks jschina.com.cn:

There is a growing awareness among ordinary residents that they can use the courts to defend their rights and interests. The judge in this case said it was just one of about 200 against local governments within the province in their courts for the past two years. That's a positive trend, because only when people seek solutions to disputes via the courts, will rule of law be possible.

However, local governments seem to be lagging far behind. The local government in Huayin has demonstrated the contempt local governments tend to show court rulings that go against them. It was only after the national media picked up the story that it promised to implement the ruling.