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In April 1994, the body of an unidentified woman is found in a local village pond. Suspicion falls on She Xianglin, the husband of a local woman reported missing months earlier. With such a high profile case in the balance and no other suspects, the police focus on the one thing that can clinch the case: a confession. She Xianglin is detained, convicted and imprisoned, and the case is closed with swift justice. But eleven years later when a mysterious woman claiming to be the wife of She Xianglin reappears, she sets into motion a series of events truly stranger than fiction. Back from the Dead tells the fascinating story of one of China's most notorious wrongful conviction cases. Well-writte...
In his dogged pursuit of a killer Hong Jun must walk the fine line between the ways of the East and the West . . . Early nineties China- Newly returned from the US, lawyer Hong Jun has just set up practice in a fledgling legal system when his first case walks through the door. Ten years ago a local beauty was killed on a state-owned farm in China's frozen northeast, and the police rushed to pin the crime on a likely culprit. With forensic evidence, a witness statement and a confession in hand, it was an open and shut case - but was the right man put away for the crime? In his struggle to uncover the truth, Hong Jun ruffles more than a few feathers. As many race to cash in on China's glittering future, he is forced to challenge those who put personal ambition above the rule of law - and those who will do anything to hide the sins of the past. In the finest tradition of international crime fiction, Hanging Devilsis a gripping novel inspired by real events.
The challenges courts face today all over the world can only be solved in close cooperation between judges and academics which crosses national borders. The anthology brings judges and academics together for a dialogue on judicial reforms. The book presents contributions by the judges on their judicial systems (China, Germany, Slovenia, England and Wales and Norway). The contributions by the academics take up different themes which have emerged in the country reports: The topics include comparative, normative and organisational perspectives on national court systems as well as international perspectives on courts as guarantors of individual rights in an increasingly globalised rule-of-law framework.
China's party-run courts have one of the highest conviction rates in the world, with forced confessions remaining a central feature. Despite recent prohibitions on evidence obtained through coercion or torture, forced confessions continue to undermine the Chinese judicial system. Recounting some harrowing cases of wrongful conviction, acclaimed legal scholar and novelist He Jiahong analyzes many problems in China's justice system. In one such case, Teng Xingshan was convicted in 1988 and later executed for murdering his mistress, but almost six years later it was discovered that the supposed victim, Shi Xiaorong, was still alive. In 2005, Teng's children submitted a complaint to the Hunan Hi...
.Criminal Justice in China is the most comprehensive work to date on the functioning of China's criminal justice system. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand any aspect of the system. There are importantinsights on virtually every page, including in depth study of the role of police, procuracy, courts, and defense lawyers. The book will be of value to anyone interested in governance in China.'
Based on empirical research, this book comprehensively and thoroughly expounds the procuratorial system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and focuses on the organization, functions and powers, the system of prosecutors and the reform of the procuratorial system in China. It deeply analyzes the characteristics and reasons of the procuratorial system in China and not only discusses the dynamic process of the various kinds of procuratorial power in practice but also analyzes the common trend of the reform of the system of prosecution service in the world under the background of the globalization of judicial reform, especially those hot topics of the procuratorial reform in recent years,...
This book contrasts experiences of mainland China and Hong Kong to explore the pressing question of how governments can transform a culture of widespread corruption to one of clean government. Melanie Manion examines Hong Kong as the best example of the possibility of reform. Within a few years it achieved a spectacularly successful conversion to clean government. Mainland China illustrates the difficulty of reform. Despite more than two decades of anticorruption reform, corruption in China continues to spread essentially unabated. The book argues that where corruption is already commonplace, the context in which officials and ordinary citizens make choices to transact corruptly (or not) is ...
'Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China is highly recommended. The editors have assembled the leading Western and Chinese scholars in the field to examine the administration of criminal justice in China, showing both how far the system has come and the challenges that lie ahead. This is an important and timely book. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand or has to deal with the Chinese criminal justice system.' Klaus Mühlhahn, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany 'This highly informative and engaging volume on the Chinese criminal justice system today provides a window into the vagaries of law and its operation in the People's Republic. McConville and Pils b...
With the 1989 Beijing massacre fading from popular memory in the West, China from the mid-1990s to a few years ago felt more open than ever to global trade, communication, travel, and cultural and educational exchanges. There was even talk in the mainstream press that China was heading toward a more democratic future. It was during this second Sino-Western honeymoon that authors in the US, Canada, France, the UK, and elsewhere began writing mystery fiction set in contemporary China in their regional languages. These “China mysteries”—crime, detective, and mystery thriller novels that take place in China but were not written or published there—formed a new genre of popular fiction tha...
This review examines the literature on procedural justice and the fair trial over the past two decades in the People’s Republic of China. Part 1 gives a wide-angle view of the key political events and developments that have shaped the experience of procedural justice and the fair trial in contemporary China. It provides a storyline that explains the political environment in which these concepts have developed over time. Part 2 examines how scholars understand the legal structures of the criminal process in relation to China’s political culture. Part 3 presents scholarly views on three enduring problems relating to the fair trial: a presumption of innocence, interrogational torture, and t...