Transforming the Culture of Chinese Prosecutors Through Guiding Cases

Hawes, C

Transforming the Culture of Chinese Prosecutors Through Guiding Cases

Hawes, C

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Publisher:: University of California Press
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: New Criminal Law Review, 2020, 23, (2), pp. 196-235
Issue Date:: 2020-04-15

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Hawes, C https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3796-8421
dc.date.accessioned	2020-09-01T00:39:15Z
dc.date.available	2020-09-01T00:39:15Z
dc.date.issued	2020-04-15
dc.identifier.citation	New Criminal Law Review, 2020, 23, (2), pp. 196-235
dc.identifier.issn	1933-4192
dc.identifier.issn	1933-4206
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/142465
dc.description.abstract	<jats:p>Public prosecutors are a key element within the legal complex, and crucial to the effective implementation of legal reforms. China’s procurators (public prosecutors) have previously colluded with local governments, police, and courts to “strike hard” against crime while overlooking systemic beating and torture of detained suspects to obtain confessions, shoddy investigative practices, and frequent miscarriages of justice.</jats:p> <jats:p>However, fifteen sets of Guiding Cases issued by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate since 2010 promote an unprecedented change in Chinese procurator culture away from “striking hard” to substantive protection of criminal suspects’ rights and exclusion of tainted evidence. They reinforce criminal procedure reforms since 2010 by demonstrating how procurators should protect innocent people against wrongful convictions and police brutality. They also stress the broader duty of China’s procurators to uphold the public interest against corrupt businesses and officials, especially in food safety, land-taking, and environmental protection cases.</jats:p> <jats:p>With other key actors in China’s “legal complex”—rights lawyers and civil society groups—still suppressed by the government, this effort to transform procurator culture is an essential, though still incomplete, step on China’s tortuous path toward a fair and just legal system.</jats:p>
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	University of California Press
dc.relation.ispartof	New Criminal Law Review
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1525/nclr.2020.23.2.196
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	1801 Law
dc.title	Transforming the Culture of Chinese Prosecutors Through Guiding Cases
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	23
utslib.for	1801 Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.date.updated	2020-09-01T00:39:10Z
pubs.issue	2
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	23
utslib.citation.issue	2

Abstract:

Public prosecutors are a key element within the legal complex, and crucial to the effective implementation of legal reforms. China’s procurators (public prosecutors) have previously colluded with local governments, police, and courts to “strike hard” against crime while overlooking systemic beating and torture of detained suspects to obtain confessions, shoddy investigative practices, and frequent miscarriages of justice. However, fifteen sets of Guiding Cases issued by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate since 2010 promote an unprecedented change in Chinese procurator culture away from “striking hard” to substantive protection of criminal suspects’ rights and exclusion of tainted evidence. They reinforce criminal procedure reforms since 2010 by demonstrating how procurators should protect innocent people against wrongful convictions and police brutality. They also stress the broader duty of China’s procurators to uphold the public interest against corrupt businesses and officials, especially in food safety, land-taking, and environmental protection cases. With other key actors in China’s “legal complex”—rights lawyers and civil society groups—still suppressed by the government, this effort to transform procurator culture is an essential, though still incomplete, step on China’s tortuous path toward a fair and just legal system.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/142465