The Criminal Process in the People's Republic of China, 1949-1963: An Introduction

Jerome Alan Cohen

Published by Harvard University Press 1968

The Criminal Process in the People's Republic of China, 1949-1963

An Introduction

Jerome Alan Cohen

Volume 2 in the series Harvard Studies in East Asian Law

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674497245

Overview
Contents

About this book

This volume represents the fruits of a preliminary inquiry into one aspect of contemporary Chinese law-the criminal process. Investigating what he calls China's "legal experiment," Mr. Cohen raises large questions about Chinese law. Is the Peoples Republic a lawless power, arbitrarily disrupting the lives of its people? Has it sought to attain Marx's vision of the ultimate withering away of the state and the law? Has Mao Zedong preferred Soviet practice to Marxist preaching? If so, has he followed Stalin or Stalin's heirs? To what extent has it been possible to transplant a foreign legal system into the world's oldest legal tradition? Has the system changed since 1949? What has been the direction of that change, and what are the prospects for the future?

Today, immense difficulties impede the study of any aspect of China's legal system. Most foreign scholars are forbidden to enter the country, and those who do visit China find solid data hard to come by. Much of the body of law is unpublished and available only to officialdom, and what is publicly available offers an incomplete, idealized, or outdated version of Chinese legal processes. Moreover, popular publications and legal journals that told much about the regime's first decade have become increasingly scarce and uninformative.

In order to obtain information for this study, Mr. Cohen spent 1963-64 in Hong Kong, interviewing refugees from the mainland and searching out and translating material on Chinese criminal law. From the interviews and published works, he has endeavored to piece together relevant data in order to see the system as a whole.

The first of the three parts of the book is an introductory essay, providing an overview of the evolution and operation of the criminal process from 1949 through 1963. The second part, constituting the bulk of the book, systematically presents primary source material, including excerpts from legal documents, policy statements, and articles in Chinese periodicals. In order to show the law in action as well as the law on the books, the author has included selections from written and oral accounts by persons who have lived in or visited the People's Republic. Interspersed among these diverse materials are Mr. Cohen's own comments, questions, and notes. Part III contains an English-Chinese glossary of the major institutional and legal terms translated in Part II, a bibliography of sources, and a list of English-language books and articles that are pertinent to an understanding of the criminal process in China.

Author / Editor information

Cohen Jerome Alan :

Jerome Alan Cohen is a member of the Executive Committee of the East Asian Research Center at Harvard University and Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.

Reviews

...one of the most revealing books yet published concerning the sociopolitical life of the ordinary Chinese on the Mainland.

...a painstakingly compiled thesis... which must be regarded as the definitive work on its subject matter... as well as a major contribution to the source material of comparative law.

Harvard University Press and Professor Cohen should be congratulated for this significant work on the criminal process in Communist China before the Cultural Revolution. Combining published sources and interviews, this volume is the fruit of years of devoted research and thorough scholarship. While the focus is on the criminal process, due attention is given to substantive criminal law and the modes of its application. Conscientious efforts are further made to relate legal institutions to political, economic, and social systems. The volume, therefore, will prove to he valuable not only to lawyers but also to scholars of the social sciences and the humanities.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
ABBREVIATIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
PART I. INTRODUCTION
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
PART II. MATERIALS
Materials Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
Chapter I. The Ideology of the Criminal Law Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
Chapter II. Informal Adjustment and Sanctioning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Chapter III. The Security Administration Punishment Act Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
Chapter IV. Rehabilitation through Labor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
Chapter V. Supervised Labor versus Control: The Borderline between Administrative and Criminal Sanctions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Chapter VI. The Definition of Criminal Conduct Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	296
Chapter VII. Formal Criminal Processes: Pretrial Proceedings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	354
Chapter VIII. Formal Criminal Processes: Trial Proceedings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	423
Chapter IX. Formal Criminal Processes: Sentencing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	507
Chapter X. Formal Criminal Processes: Appeal, Postconviction Review, and Problems of Mistakes and Abuses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	548
Chapter XI. Formal Criminal Processes: Reform through Labor and Release Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	587
PART III. BIBLIOGRAPHY GLOSSARY
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	643
GLOSSARY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	661
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	695

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Copyright year: 1968
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 16
- Main content: 706
Illustrations
- Other: illustrated
Keywords: Criminal procedure -- China.; Criminal law -- China.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674497245

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1968
ISBN: 9780674497221