Abstract: Although institutional designs and its backgrounds vary from country to country, it is a common phenomenon that theideas, institutions and practices of non-professional judges interact and deviate from each other in the world. This disser-tation tries to interpret this phenomenon from the perspective of sociological of law, which puts forward the fundamentaltheoretical hypothesis focusing on the non-professional judges' potential functions, social requirements and judicial envi-ronments. This dissertation not only builds several ideal types based on the historical materials, legal provisions and posi-tive researches of various countries, but also makes great effort to describe and explain the historical changes and the cur-rent situation of our people’ s assessor system.

Key words: Non-professional Judges, Potential Functions, Social Requirements, Judicial Environments