A Comparison of the Juvenile Procedural Agent System in China and Japan

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-400-6_25How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Procedural agent; Family litigation; Procedural guarantee; Comparison between China and Japan

Abstract

China lacks a representative system effectively safeguarding the interests of minors in family justice. Traditional civil procedures have proven inadequate in resolving family disputes involving minors. Japan’s juvenile procedural agent system, implemented in 2013, has matured significantly over the past twelve years, demonstrating positive social impact. Given the challenges faced by China’s family courts, this study analyzes Japan’s system to inform the development of a contextually appropriate minor interest representative system in China. Current shortcomings in China’s procedural agent system include inconsistent work content and role definition, unclear legal status, a non-uniform selection process and scope of application, and a disorganized workflow. To address these practical issues, court-appointed lawyers or grassroots legal service workers should represent minors independently in litigation when conflicts of interest arise between the minor and their legal representative, when the legal representative cannot act, or when the legal representative faces significant difficulties doing so. This requires explicit legal provisions defining the representative’s litigation status, rights, obligations, qualification criteria, selection process, remuneration, and relationships with litigants and other relevant parties, thus ensuring the effective protection of minors’ best interests.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yingchun Yang
AU  - Shuangjie Guo
AU  - Xiaoxue Jiang
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/05/15
TI  - A Comparison of the Juvenile Procedural Agent System in China and Japan
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Educational Development and Social Sciences (EDSS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 196
EP  - 202
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-400-6_25
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-400-6_25
ID  - Yang2025
ER  -