Forty years of reform and opening up: the Birth and development of China's criminal justice system

• Author: Forty years of reform and opening up: the Birth and development of China's criminal justice system
• Pages: 73-85

FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA

VOL. 14 MARCH 2019 NO. 1

DOI 10.3868/s050-008-019-0004-1

FOCUS

CHINESE LEGAL SCIENCE IN THE 40 YEARS OF REFORM AND OPENING UP

FORTY YEARS OF REFORM AND OPENING UP: THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT

OF CHINA’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

BIAN Jianlin*, XIE Shu**

Abstract The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist

Party of China held in 1978 marked the initiation of the policy of reform and opening up

in China, beginning a new chapter in the construction of a socialist legal system. The

first Chinese criminal procedure law was promulgated the following year and was

revised twice in 1996 and 2012. Although remarkable progress has been made, the level

of the rule of law in China’s criminal procedure must still be improved to meet the goal

of modernizing the criminal rule of law.

Keywords reform and opening up, criminal procedure, litigation systems, trial-centered,

leniency for confession and acceptance of punishment

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 74

I. PROMULGATION OF THE 1979 CRIMINAL PROCEDURE LAW ...................................... 74

A. Background and the Process of Legislation........................................................ 74

B. Legislative Characteristics.................................................................................. 76

II. THE 1996 CRIMINAL PROCEDURE LAW REVISION ................................................... 76

A. Background and Process of Legislation .............................................................. 76

B. Legislative Characteristics.................................................................................. 77

III. THE 2012 CRIMINAL PROCEDURE LAW REVISION .................................................. 79

A. Background and Process of Legislation .............................................................. 79

B. Legislative Characteristics.................................................................................. 80

IV. FUTURE REFORM: TRIAL-CENTERED CRIMINAL PROCEDURES AND LENIENCY FOR

* (󰑬) Ph.D. in Procedure Law, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China;

Professor, Procedural Law Research Institute, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing 100088,

China. Contact: chbjl@263.net

** (󲣷󰱢) Ph.D. candidate, School of Criminal Justice, China University of Political Science and Law,

Beijing 100088, China. Contact: xieshu@lawtalks.cn

The authors would like to acknowledge the translation work of PEI Wei, Associate Professor of the Law

School of Beihang University.