Does China Need Witnesses to Appear in Court? – Courtroom Discourse in China’s Criminal

Does China Need Witnesses to Appear in Court? – Courtroom Discourse in China’s Criminal

  • Xin Fu

Abstract

Abstract: China set up a trial system with adversarial elements after the reform of the Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) in 1996. Under such a trial process, witnesses appear in court to testify and receive cross-examination of the prosecution and the defence is of great importance to secure the defendant’s procedural rights. Moreover, the amendment in 2012 further improved relevant supporting measures to safeguard defendant’s rights, especially right to confront with the witnesses against him. However, the Chinese literatures showed that the rate of witnesses’ court appearance is still quite low. Thus several questions may come up: Does the defence have a chance to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses and produce its own witnesses in court? Does China really need the witnesses appear in court? What can be done from the perspective of protecting human rights of the accused in the court trial regarding their right to cross-examine the witnesses?
In this paper, the author reviews the Chinese literatures as well as introduces his empirical observations in some Chinese courts regarding witnesses’ appearance in court. He also analyzes the problems of the witness system in the criminal trial and identifies in-depth reasons for few witnesses to testify in court. In his view, the witness’ giving testimony in court involves a number of complicated issues in China, as it does not only relate to the defects on the legislation and law enforcement, but also the ideology of state actors in the courtroom, in particular prosecutors and judges, and traditional culture of harmony. Based on these findings, the author raises a number of recommendations for the improvement in securing witnesses’ appearance in court, which aims at putting the reforms introduced by the Criminal Procedure Law into effect in China and thus strengthening the protection of the defendant’s human rights from procedural perspective.


Keywords: Witness; Criminal Procedure; Criminal Trial; Recommendations; China.

In December 2016, the Supreme People’s Court

Published
Mar 31, 2018
How to Cite
FU, Xin. Does China Need Witnesses to Appear in Court? – Courtroom Discourse in China’s Criminal. DPCE Online, [S.l.], v. 34, n. 1, mar. 2018. ISSN 2037-6677. Available at: <https://www.dpceonline.it/index.php/dpceonline/article/view/490>. Date accessed: 28 mar. 2024. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.57660/dpceonline.2018.490.
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