Abstract
China’s unique cultural, historical, and political context profoundly shapes the country’s criminal justice system. Striking differences exist between the institutions, actors, and practices that comprise the Chinese criminal justice system and those of other countries. Appreciating these differences is crucial to understanding how justice is administered to one-fifth of the world’s population and, consequently, developing a truly comparative understanding of criminal justice.
Fortunately, the English-language literature on the Chinese criminal justice system has flourished over the past decade. Western scholars are producing scholarship on crime and justice in China at an unprecedented rate, while Chinese scholars are increasingly publishing their work in English. Yuwen Li, who holds law degrees from both China and the Netherlands and teaches Chinese law at Erasmus University Rotterdam, meaningfully contributes to this literature with her book entitled The Judicial System and Reform in Post-Mao China.
The author describes her methodology as a combination of “traditional modes of legal analysis, case studies, and empirical research.” The empirical research component consists of two parts. First, qualitative interviews with an unspecified number of Chinese judges, procurators, lawyers, and legal scholars. Second, field observation of five criminal trials and nine civil trials in courts across the country.
The book addresses what the author suggests are “the most fundamental, as well as the most controversial, subjects concerning the operation of the courts.” It is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter discusses the organization of the court system, jurisdiction, relationships among different courts, decision-making bodies within courts, and the people’s assessor system. The second chapter examines the relationships between courts and various extra-judicial bodies (e.g., people’s congresses, the communist party, various executive institutions, and the procuratorate). Chapter 3 discusses the professionalization of the judiciary. Chapter 4 reviews the laws and regulations that formally structure the criminal process as well as the informal norms and practices that frequently exist in tension with formal legal mandates and protections. This chapter investigates numerous significant issues, including the presumption of innocence, the right to remain silent, in-court witness testimony, and the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence. It also summarizes the roles various criminal justice actors play at trial, death penalty review procedures, and several prominent wrongful convictions. Chapters 5 and 6 survey civil and administrative trial processes, respectively. Chapter 7 discusses the evolution of the legal profession and the challenges faced by criminal defense attorneys. In the final chapter, the author describes several key characteristics of legal reform in China and argues that three goals should form the cornerstones of reform: Increasing the competence and ethics of judges, separating the adjudicative and administrative functions of courts, and strengthening judicial independence.
The Judicial System and Reform in Post-Mao China is an excellent book. It provides an exceptional overview of the structure of the Chinese court system, the institutional context of criminal trials, and a number of hotly debated issues regarding the Chinese criminal process. The author draws on voluminous Chinese laws, regulations, and scholarship—including empirical findings previously available only in Chinese—to support her arguments, thereby making this information accessible to an English-speaking audience. She also livens up her arguments with examples and anecdotes from her personal experience, interviews with criminal justice actors, observations of criminal trials, and media reports. The author’s thorough research and careful editing have resulted in a book that is not only highly informative, but also surprisingly engaging.
Only two shortcomings merit mention here. The first is that the author does not systematically analyze the content of her interviews or field observations. Instead, she occasionally refers to certain statements from interviewees or an event she witnessed while observing a trial to support a specific argument. The second is that the book does not advance an overarching argument or place various phenomena in theoretical context. Although the book succeeds in providing a descriptive overview of the Chinese legal system and significant developments, the broader theoretical significance of these phenomena go largely unexamined.
In summary, The Judicial System and Reform in Post-Mao China effectively examines a number of important issues pertaining to criminal justice in China. It provides a wealth of information that may stimulate future research aimed at developing explanatory frameworks to place these issues in broader comparative or theoretical context. It is also one of the most engaging and up-to-date book-length overviews of the Chinese criminal justice system available in English. The book is therefore not only a valuable resource for comparative law scholars already acquainted with the Chinese legal system, but also an excellent introduction for readers unfamiliar with crime and justice in China.