Criminal Justice in China

Criminal Justice in China
Author: Klaus Mu_hlhahn
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2009-04-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780674054332

In a groundbreaking work, Klaus Muhlhahn offers a comprehensive examination of the criminal justice system in modern China, an institution deeply rooted in politics, society, and culture. In late imperial China, flogging, tattooing, torture, and servitude were routine punishments. Sentences, including executions, were generally carried out in public. After 1905, in a drive to build a strong state and curtail pressure from the West, Chinese officials initiated major legal reforms. Physical punishments were replaced by fines and imprisonment. Capital punishment, though removed from the public sphere, remained in force for the worst crimes. Trials no longer relied on confessions obtained through torture but were instead held in open court and based on evidence. Prison reform became the centerpiece of an ambitious social-improvement program. After 1949, the Chinese communists developed their own definitions of criminality and new forms of punishment. People's tribunals were convened before large crowds, which often participated in the proceedings. At the center of the socialist system was reform through labor, and thousands of camps administered prison sentences. Eventually, the communist leadership used the camps to detain anyone who offended against the new society, and the crime of counterrevolution was born. Muhlhahn reveals the broad contours of criminal justice from late imperial China to the Deng reform era and details the underlying values, successes and failures, and ultimate human costs of the system. Based on unprecedented research in Chinese archives and incorporating prisoner testimonies, witness reports, and interviews, this book is essential reading for understanding modern China.

The Tradition and Modern Transition of Chinese Law

The Tradition and Modern Transition of Chinese Law
Author: Jinfan Zhang
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-09-03
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9783662521144

The book was first published in 1997, and was awarded the first prize of scientific research by the Ministry of Justice during the ninth Five-Year Plan of China. In 2005, it was adopted the text book for the postgraduates of law majors. In 2009, it was awarded the second prize of the best books on law in China. The book discusses from different aspects the long legal tradition in China, and it not only helps us to have a further understanding of Chinese legal system but also combines theories and practice and illustrate the modern legal transition which probes the history of Chinese legal system. As is known to us all, China is a country with a long legal history, which can be traced back to more than three thousand year ago. So the legal tradition of China has been passed down from generation to generation without any interruptions. This feature is peculiar to Chinese legal history which is beyond all comparison with that of other countries such as ancient Egypt, ancient India, ancient Babylon and ancient Persia. Through the study of Chinese legal history we can have a deeper understanding of the histories, features, origins and the transition of Chinese legal tradition. The Chinese legal tradition originated from China, and it is the embodiment of the wisdom and creativity of Chinese civilization. The great many books, researching materials, legal constitutions, archives, files and records of different dynasties in China have provided us with rare, complete and systematic materials to research. The book has a complete, systematic and detailed research on Chinese legal tradition and its transition and it gives people a correct recognition of the process of the perfection of laws during its development and its position as well as its value in the social progress in order to grasp its regular patterns. It also has showed us the most valuable part and core of Chinese legal Tradition and it is a summary of Chinese legal tradition and its transition from different perspectives, different angles and different levels. From the book, we can see that the ancient Chinese Legal Culture had once shocked the world and exerted great influence on the civilization of the world legal system, especially the legal systems in Asian countries. The book also has discussed the reestablishment of law in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Chinese law’s transition to modernity. In a word, the book has not only combined the legal system and the legal culture together, but also integrated the important historical figures and events ingeniously and it is a valuable and readable book with authenticity.

China’s War on Smuggling

China’s War on Smuggling
Author: Philip Thai
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 023154636X

Smuggling along the Chinese coast has been a thorn in the side of many regimes. From opium and weapons concealed aboard foreign steamships in the Qing dynasty to nylon stockings and wristwatches trafficked in the People’s Republic, contests between state and smuggler have exerted a surprising but crucial influence on the political economy of modern China. Seeking to consolidate domestic authority and confront foreign challenges, states introduced tighter regulations, higher taxes, and harsher enforcement. These interventions sparked widespread defiance, triggering further coercive measures. Smuggling simultaneously threatened the state’s power while inviting repression that strengthened its authority. Philip Thai chronicles the vicissitudes of smuggling in modern China—its practice, suppression, and significance—to demonstrate the intimate link between illicit coastal trade and the amplification of state power. China’s War on Smuggling shows that the fight against smuggling was not a simple law enforcement problem but rather an impetus to centralize authority and expand economic controls. The smuggling epidemic gave Chinese states pretext to define legal and illegal behavior, and the resulting constraints on consumption and movement remade everyday life for individuals, merchants, and communities. Drawing from varied sources such as legal cases, customs records, and popular press reports and including diverse perspectives from political leaders, frontline enforcers, organized traffickers, and petty runners, Thai uncovers how different regimes policed maritime trade and the unintended consequences their campaigns unleashed. China’s War on Smuggling traces how defiance and repression redefined state power, offering new insights into modern Chinese social, legal, and economic history.

Chinese Law: Context and Transformation

Chinese Law: Context and Transformation
Author: Jianfu Chen
Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
Total Pages: 792
Release: 2015-12-22
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9047423437

Eight years of changes in China have passed since the publication of the previous highly successful edition of this book. These changes have not just been about economic development. Among the many transformations there has been another quiet, peaceful, and largely successful (but far from perfect) ‘revolution’ in the area of law, whose deficiencies have been more often mercilessly examined and documented than have its historical achievements and significance. This legal ‘revolution’ is the subject matter of the present book. Like the previous edition, it examines the historical and politico-economic context in which Chinese law has developed and transformed, focusing on the underlying factors and justifications for changes. It attempts to sketch the main trends in legal modernisation in China, offering an outline of the main features of contemporary Chinese law and a clearer understanding of its nature from a developmental perspective. It offers comprehensive coverage of topics such as: ‘legal culture’ and modern law reform, constitutional law, legal institutions, law-making, administrative law, criminal law, criminal procedure law, civil law, property, family law, contracts, law on business entities, securities, bankruptcy, intellectual property, law on foreign investment and trade, and implementation of law. Fully revised, updated and considerably expanded, this editon of Chinese Law: Context and Transformation is a valuable and important resource for reasearchers, policy-makers and teachers alike.

The Limits of the Rule of Law in China

The Limits of the Rule of Law in China
Author: Karen G. Turner
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2015-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0295803894

In The Limits of the Rule of Law in China, fourteen authors from different academic disciplines reflect on questions that have troubled Chinese and Western scholars of jurisprudence since classical times. Using data from the early 19th century through the contemporary period, they analyze how tension between formal laws and discretionary judgment is discussed and manifested in the Chinese context. The contributions cover a wide range of topics, from interpreting the rationale for and legacy of Qing practices of collective punishment, confession at trial, and bureaucratic supervision to assessing the political and cultural forces that continue to limit the authority of formal legal institutions in the People’s Republic of China.

Chinese Legal Reform and the Global Legal Order

Chinese Legal Reform and the Global Legal Order
Author: Yun Zhao
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2018
Genre: Law
ISBN: 110718200X

A critical evaluation of the latest reform in Chinese law that engages legal scholarship with research of Chinese legal historians.

The History of Chinese Legal Civilization

The History of Chinese Legal Civilization
Author: Jinfan Zhang
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 903
Release: 2020-07-25
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9789811010309

This book, based on the theory of Marxism-Leninism, aims to study the essence, content and features of various legal systems in China in different historical periods, as well as the rules of the development of Chinese legal systems. It effectively combines classic analysis and historical analysis to probe historical facts and elaborate the historical role of the legal system, revealing both the general and the specific rules of the development of China s legal system on the basis of the existing relevant research. The subject matter is of abundant theoretical and practical significance, as it enriches Marxist legal studies, deepens readers’ understanding of China s legal civilization and offers guiding principles for the creation of socialist legal systems with Chinese characteristics. It discusses the trends in thinking on the reconstruction of the legal system; changing laws; western legal culture; the legal system in the period of westernization, constitution and reform; preparation for constitutionalism; modification of the law during the late Qing Dynasty; criminal, civil and commercial legislation; and judicial reforms in the modern era as well as the various ups and downs and cases of malconduct after the founding of the People’s Republic of China

China and the International Criminal Court

China and the International Criminal Court
Author: Dan Zhu
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2018-02-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9811073740

This book focuses on the evolving relationship between China and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It examines the substantive issues that have restricted China’s engagement with the ICC to date, and provides a comprehensive assessment of whether these Chinese concerns still constitute a significant impediment to China’s accession to the ICC in the years to come. The book places the China-ICC relationship within the wider context of China’s interactions with international judicial bodies, and uses the ICC as an example to reflect China’s engagement with international institutions and global governance in general. It seeks to offer a thought-provoking resource to international law and international relations scholars, legal practitioners, government legal advisers, and policy-makers about the nature, scope, and consequences of the relationship between China and the ICC, as well as its impact on both global governance and order. This book is the first of its kind to explore China’s engagement with the ICC primarily from a legal perspective.