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Using civil appeals data on Taiwan's Supreme Court (TSC), this article revisits the well-known question of whether the "haves" come out ahead in litigations. We first show that the higher-status litigants indeed mobilized stronger legal representation and obtained more victories than the lower-status litigants. However, we submit that that the party capability theory cannot fully explain the advantages the "haves" enjoyed over the "have-nots." Further analysis reveals that the TSC's exercise of discretionary jurisdiction also played an important role by strongly favoring the governmental litigants at the agenda-setting stage. We argue that the TSC's preference in this regard was induced by the TSC judges' self-identification as part of government. In conclusion, our empirical investigation shows that both party capability and court preference contribute to influence the outcomes of appeals. (JEL K4)

This article studies how Chinese audiences' participation contributes to a new all-time animation box-office champ, "Monkey King: Hero is Back," and how such participation may contribute to facilitating a richer and more varied cultural life in China in the future. This made-in-China animation film snatched the throne from DreamWorks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda 2" by breaking the latter's 4-year record (617 million RMB) after announcing its box-office sale had exceeded 800 million RMB on 4 August. The significance of the animation is approved by a seminar held by the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, naming it "the milestone of domestic animation film production" on 4 August. The legend of the animation is an exemplification of the enthusiasm of Chinese audiences, who identify themselves not only as fans but also followers and cheerleaders of the film. They selfaddressed themselves as zi lai shui (literally means tap-water, 自来水), figuratively means the Internet mercenaries willing to advertise the film on social media at their own expense. Drawing on the literature of power and influence, fans of "Monkey King: Hero is Back" will be interviewed and their online activities and comments will be analyzed to find out (1) how the scattered audience members built a united identification online and (2) how such spontaneous but also well-organized Internet aggregation turns into SHI (overwhelming with numerical strength, social capital, and influence) and further empowers the Chinese audiences in an era in which social media prosper in China.

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Using Taiwan's 2012 proposal as an illustration, this article discusses a new form of lay participation-the advisory jury-where a group of lay jurors make a collective decision without the professional judges' interference but such decision has no binding effect. This article analyzes how identifying promotion of the public's confidence in the judicial system rather than democratizing judicial decision making by legal elites as the reform purpose leads to the emergence of this form of lay participation. Through a newly conducted national survey, this study shows that the strong support for citizen participation indeed arises from popular dissatisfaction with judicial decision making by professional judges. However, merely half the public are willing to serve and significant disparities in willingness to serve exist across various demographic groups. Our empirical findings inform policymakers of important issues to be addressed in future implementation of citizen participation.