2015-03-31
Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People’s Court of China, delivers his work report to the National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 12, 2015.
AFP
A decree from China’s highest court banning officials from interference in court proceedings is unlikely to herald major changes soon, analysts said.
The Supreme People’s Court in Beijing recently launched a set of reform guidelines in a bid to strengthen the rights of defendants and prevent official interference in court decisions, official media reported.
Among the reforms include the setting up of a system for recording officials’ instructions, letters and other information that are judged to be “interfering” with legal cases.
According to the English-language Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, such records will be stored and litigants will be able to check them.
But a recent high-level judicial meeting stopped short of recommending “western-style” judicial independence or the separation of powers, the report said.
The new guidelines also set requirements for judges’ experience and professionalism and promised to form mechanism for punishing judges who violate the rules, the paper said.
The Supreme People’s Court reform plan sets out guidelines for the confirmation of evidence, the establishment of facts and for making fair judgments, it said.
In an apparent reference to the widespread use of forced confessions in China’s legal system, courts should reject any evidence obtained through illegal means, the court will order.
Meanwhile, steps will be taken to improve the experience of defendants, who often appear in court in prison uniform with shaved heads.
But a top human rights lawyer said the rules will be hard to implement to a meaningful degree, as judicial officials are often required to wait for directions from their superiors in the government before passing judgment.
“The judiciary really has no say in deciding the more sensitive cases,” visiting Harvard legal scholar Teng Biao told RFA in a recent interview.
“They are obliged to do as directed by the party’s political and legal affairs committees, or other high-ranking officials,” he said.
Tightening their holds
Teng said that governments at the central and provincial levels have actually tightened their holds on the judicial system in recent months.
