Criminal Law and Criminal Proceudre Law in the People's Republic of China provides the most up-to-date and full translation of the Chinese Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, accompanied by a comprehensive introduction to the criminal justice system in China.
The post-Mao commitment to modernization, coupled with a general revulsion against the lawlessness of the Cultural Revolution, has led to a significant law reform movement in the Peoples Republic of China. Chinas current leadership seeks to restore order and morale, to attract domestic support and external assistance for its modernization program, and to provide a secure, orderly environment for economic development. It has taken a number of steps to strengthen its laws and judicial system, among which are the PRCs first substantive and procedural criminal codes. This is the first book-length study of the most important area of Chinese lawthe development, organization, and functioning of the criminal justice system in China today. It examines both the formal aspects of the criminal justice systemsuch as the court, the procuracy, lawyers, and criminal procedureand the extrajudicial organs and sanctions that play important roles in the Chinese system. Based on published Chinese materials and personal interviews, the book is essential reading for persons interested in human rights and laws in China, as well as for those concerned with Chinas political system and economic development. The inclusion of selected documents and an extensive bibliography further enhance the value of the book.
This open access publication discusses exclusionary rules in different criminal justice systems. It is based on the findings of a research project in comparative law with a focus on the question of whether or not a fair trial can be secured through evidence exclusion. Part I explains the legal framework in which exclusionary rules function in six legal systems: Germany, Switzerland, People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Singapore, and the United States. Part II is dedicated to selected issues identified as crucial for the assessment of exclusionary rules. These chapters highlight the delicate balance of interests required in the exclusion of potentially relevant information from a criminal trial and discusses possible approaches to alleviate the legal hurdles involved.
'Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China is highly recommended. The editors have assembled the leading Western and Chinese scholars in the field to examine the administration of criminal justice in China, showing both how far the system has come and the challenges that lie ahead. This is an important and timely book. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand or has to deal with the Chinese criminal justice system.' Klaus Mühlhahn, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany 'This highly informative and engaging volume on the Chinese criminal justice system today provides a window into the vagaries of law and its operation in the People's Republic. McConville and Pils bring together an impressive array of scholars whose studies span the criminal process. From initial police investigation, through to prosecution and sentencing of defendants, we see how dominant values in the Chinese state and its structures of power make the practice of criminal justice today still intensely political.' Susan Trevaskes, Griffith University, Australia Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China is an anthology of chapters on the contemporary criminal justice system in mainland China, bringing together the work of recognised scholars from China and around the world. The book addresses issues at various stages of the criminal justice process (investigation and prosecution of crime and criminal trial) as well as problems pertaining to criminal defence and to parallel systems of punishment. All of the contributions discuss the criminal justice system in the context of China's legal reforms. Several of the contributions urge the conclusion that the criminal process and related processes remain marred by overwhelming powers of the police and Party-State, and a chapter discussing China's 2012 revision of its Criminal Procedure Law argues that the revision is unlikely to bring significant improvement. This diverse comparative study will appeal to academics in Chinese law, society and politics, members of the human rights NGO and diplomatic communities as well as legal professionals interested in China.
This volume includes guiding cases of the Supreme People’s Court, cases deliberated on by the Judicial Council/Committee of the Supreme People’s Court, and cases discussed at the Joint Meetings of Presiding Judges from the various tribunals. This book is divided into four sections, including Cases by Justices, Selected Judicial Opinion(s), “Hot Cases” and “Typical Cases”, which will introduce readers to Chinese legal processes, legal methodologies and ideology in an intuitive, clear, and accurate manner.This volume presents cases selected by the trial departments of the Supreme People’s Court of China from their concluded cases. In order to give full weight to the legal value and social functions of cases from the Supreme People’s Court, and to achieve the goal of “serving the trial practices, serving economic and social development, serving legal education and legal scholarship, serving international legal exchanges among Chinese and foreign legal communities and serving the rule of law in China”, the China Institute of Applied Jurisprudence, with the approval of the Supreme People’s Court, opted to publish “Selected Cases from the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China” in both Chinese and English, for domestic and overseas distribution.
This volume represents the fruits of a preliminary inquiry into one aspect of contemporary Chinese law-the criminal process. Investigating what he calls China's "legal experiment," Mr. Cohen raises large questions about Chinese law. Is the Peoples Republic a lawless power, arbitrarily disrupting the lives of its people? Has it sought to attain Marx's vision of the ultimate withering away of the state and the law? Has Mao Zedong preferred Soviet practice to Marxist preaching? If so, has he followed Stalin or Stalin's heirs? To what extent has it been possible to transplant a foreign legal system into the world's oldest legal tradition? Has the system changed since 1949? What has been the direction of that change, and what are the prospects for the future? Today, immense difficulties impede the study of any aspect of China's legal system. Most foreign scholars are forbidden to enter the country, and those who do visit China find solid data hard to come by. Much of the body of law is unpublished and available only to officialdom, and what is publicly available offers an incomplete, idealized, or outdated version of Chinese legal processes. Moreover, popular publications and legal journals that told much about the regime's first decade have become increasingly scarce and uninformative. In order to obtain information for this study, Mr. Cohen spent 1963-64 in Hong Kong, interviewing refugees from the mainland and searching out and translating material on Chinese criminal law. From the interviews and published works, he has endeavored to piece together relevant data in order to see the system as a whole. The first of the three parts of the book is an introductory essay, providing an overview of the evolution and operation of the criminal process from 1949 through 1963. The second part, constituting the bulk of the book, systematically presents primary source material, including excerpts from legal documents, policy statements, and articles in Chinese periodicals. In order to show the law in action as well as the law on the books, the author has included selections from written and oral accounts by persons who have lived in or visited the People's Republic. Interspersed among these diverse materials are Mr. Cohen's own comments, questions, and notes. Part III contains an English-Chinese glossary of the major institutional and legal terms translated in Part II, a bibliography of sources, and a list of English-language books and articles that are pertinent to an understanding of the criminal process in China.
Criminal law features most prominently throughout the history of China. It applies to Chinese as well as foreigners. The increasing number of foreign people caught in the Chinese criminal justice system highlights the importance of an understanding of the Chinese criminal justice system. Equally critical in the understanding of Chinese society is an understanding of the role of criminal law and its practice in the protection or abuse of human rights in China. Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law in the People's Republic of China provides the most up-to-date and full translation of the Chinese Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law. The translation is accompanied by a comprehensive introduction to the Chinese criminal justice system, its evolution and development.
Using a conceptual framework, this 2007 book examines the processes of legal reform in post-socialist countries such as China. Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of the 'field', the increasingly complex and contested processes of legal reform are analysed in relation to police powers. The impact of China's post-1978 legal reforms on police powers is examined through a detailed analysis of three administrative detention powers: detention for education of prostitutes; coercive drug rehabilitation; and re-education through labour. The debate surrounding the abolition in 1996 of detention for investigation (also known as shelter and investigation) is also considered. Despite over 20 years of legal reform, police powers remain poorly defined by law and subject to minimal legal constraint. They continue to be seriously and systematically abused. However, there has been both systematic and occasionally dramatic reform of these powers. This book considers the processes which have made these legal changes possible.