Suchergebnisse

This paper reviews current criminal justice reforms that have been initiated in recent years under the governance platform Governing the Nation in Accordance with the Law [yifa zhiguo].
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These initiatives are helping to reframe criminal justice processes to correspond with the broad governance intentions of President Xi Jinping: finessing center-local power relations, making the authorities in the justice system more accountable for their decision-making, and improving procedures that aim to bring about greater fairness and efficiency. We examine these ongoing reforms in two main areas: the handling of minor crimes and the punishment of serious offenses. We find that yifa zhiguo and the reforms made in its name continue to reflect a highly legalist and instrumentalist vision of law whose goal is to enhance Party-state governance to control dissent and crime more effectively through criminal law, to enhance politico-legal institutional credibility, and, ultimately, to sustain Party supremacy and social stability.

Deprivation of liberty under scrutiny / Elisa Nesossi, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio and Susan Trevaskes -- What to make of the abolition of re-education through labour? / Sarah Biddulph -- China's socialization of administrative offenders in the community : an unrealistic agenda? / Enshen Li -- Deprivation of liberty against one's will in mental health institutions in contemporary China / Zhiyuan Guo -- Residential surveillance : evolution of a janus-faced measure / Joshua Rosenzweig -- China's pre-trial detention centres : challenges and opportunities for reform / Lei Cheng and Elisa Nesossi -- Addressing the "hide and seek" scandal: restoring the legitimacy of Kanshousuo / Nicola Macbean -- Framing imprisonment studies in China : ideology, law and politics / Elisa Nesossi and Susan Trevaskes -- Western analyses of deprivation of liberty in China / Flora Sapio -- Opportunities and challenges for legislative and institutional reform of detention in China / Elisa Nesossi, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio and Susan Trevaskes

With its ample resonance both within China and internationally, the 'rule of law' (yifa zhiguo) is an expression that can justify the most disparate justice reforms. It is both a political value worth defending and a reason for consternation; it is an ideal that is inherently troubling and troubled by its interlocutors, advocates, and critics. For this reason, even the term 'yifa zhiguo' has been translated differently by different interlocutors, with 'rule of law', 'rule by law' and 'ruling the country according to the law' being the most frequent renderings in the English language.

This article reviews forms of detention and their reforms in the People's Republic of China (prc). We examine the changing scope and uses of both administrative and criminal detention powers in the reform period and the impact of changing politics, ideology, and law in reform of both detention powers and institutions.In Part 1, we focus on the continuities and discontinuities in the ideology of punishment, the perceived role and uses of detention in shaping society and in social control. In Part 2, we explore the factors relevant to the reform or abolition of range of administrative detention powers. We seek to understand how reforms have occurred, where they have stalled and where they are now possible. We ask how relevant these considerations are to the reform of criminal detention powers and find some distinctive features, not least of which is the comparative rigidity brought about by legal codification. We also note that reform to some administrative detention powers has been accompanied by an expansion in the criminal justice system. Our analysis illustrates that not only is there a wide range of people that the Party-state considers deserve to be placed outside of society, but also that in contemporary China detention is still considered to be a very useful form of social management and control.