4 - How the Supreme People’s Court Drafts Criminal Procedure Judicial Interpretations

Summary

Drawing on research into the substance of and process by which the Supreme People’s Court drafts judicial interpretations in the area of criminal procedure law, this chapter argues that the drafting process proceeds in a ‘gated community’ of representatives from the relevant authorities. The process creates legal rules that are politically acceptable, legally sound and practicable in the Chinese legal environment. The drafting reflects the quasi-administrative way in which the Supreme People’s Court operates: professional yet politically attuned. Although discrete efforts are being made to strengthen human rights protections and procedural protections (e.g. increasing ‘trial-centred procedures’) in the course of criminal procedure reforms, those efforts will be restricted to the confines of what is permitted by the political authorities.