Legal Reforms and Deprivation of Liberty in Contemporary China

Elisa Nesossi, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio, Susan Trevaskes, Elisa Nesossi, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio, Susan Trevaskes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781472479396
• eBook ISBN: 9781317106050
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Administrative Law
• Index: Law

The volume presents an extensive investigation into the process of reforms of detention powers in today's China and offers an in-depth analysis of the debates surrounding the reformist attempts. The chapters in this collection demonstrate that legislative and institutional reforms in this area result from political opportunities - openings and tensions at the central institutional levels of political authority - and contingent social and political factors. The book examines legal and institutional reforms to institutions of detention and imprisonment that have occurred since the 1990s, with a particular focus on the 21st century. Its content follows three particular lines of enquiry concerning the issue of deprivation of liberty in contemporary China. The first deals with the academic and theoretical debates on the subject of imprisonment and detention. The related chapters explain the difficulties encountered in this area of research and understandings of the discourses of reform through labour in Western and Chinese scholarship. The second deals with the specific issues of criminal and administrative forms of deprivation of liberty, examining in particular the institutional and legislative dimensions, considering the relationship between reforms and criminal justice policy agendas. The third assesses the meaning of institutional reforms in the context of the changing state-society relationship in contemporary China.

The Rule of Law in China and Comparative Perspectives

Series Editors:

Yuwen Li, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Fu Hualing, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

There is no doctrine more effective than the rule of law in portraying the complex transformation of Chinese society from the rule of men towards the rule of law – a process inaugurated in post-Mao China which is continuing to advance legal reforms to the present day. In other parts of the world, striving for the rule of law is also evident: countries in transition face a similar mission, while the developed democratic countries are forced to tackle new challenges in retaining the high benchmark of the rule of law that has been established.

Research on the legal system in China and comparisons with other countries in the framework of the rule of law covers broad topics of public and private law, substantive law and procedural law, citizens’ rights and law enforcement by courts. Based on this broad understanding of the rule of law, the series presents international scholarly work on modern Chinese law including: comparative perspectives, interdisciplinary, and empirical studies.

Other titles in this series:

The Judicial System and Reform in Post-Mao China

Yuwen Li

Administrative Litigation Systems in Greater China and Europe

Edited by Yuwen Li

Conservation and Recreation in Protected Areas

Yun Ma

Legal Reforms and Deprivation of Liberty in Contemporary China

Edited by Elisa Nesossi, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio and Susan Trevaskes

First published 2016

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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© 2016 selection and editorial matter, Elisa Nesossi, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio and Susan Trevaskes; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Elisa Nesossi, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio and Susan Trevaskes to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Nesossi, Elisa, editor. | Biddulph, Sarah, editor. | Sapio, Flora, editor. | Trevaskes, Susan, 1964- editor.

Title: Legal reforms and deprivation of liberty in contemporary China / edited by Elisa Nesossi, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio and Susan Trevaskes.

Series: The rule of law in China and comparative perspectives | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Subjects: LCSH: Detention of persons—China. | Correctional law—China.

Classification: LCC KNQ4657 .L44 2016 (print) | LCC KNQ4657 (ebook) | DDC 345.51/0527—dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015045522

ISBN: 978-1-4724-7939-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-59209-1 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315592091

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK

Contents

• Notes on contributors
• Preface
• 1 Deprivation of liberty under scrutiny ELISA NESOSSI, SARAH BIDDULPH, FLORA SAPIO AND SUSAN TREVASKES
• PART I Administrative detention
  • 2 What to make of the abolition of re-education through labour? SARAH BIDDULPH
  • 3 China’s socialisation of administrative offenders in the community: an unrealistic agenda? ENSHEN LI
  • 4 Deprivation of liberty against one’s will in mental health institutions in contemporary China ZHIYUAN GUO
• PART II Criminal justice reforms and deprivation of liberty
  • 5 Residential surveillance: evolution of a Janus-faced measure JOSHUA ROSENZWEIG
  • 6 China’s pre-trial detention centres: challenges and opportunities for reform LEI CHENG AND ELISA NESOSSI
  • 7 Addressing the ‘hide and seek’ scandal: restoring the legitimacy of kanshousuo NICOLA MACBEAN
• PART III An assessment of the field
  • 8 Framing imprisonment studies in China: ideology, law and politics ELISA NESOSSI AND SUSAN TREVASKES
  • 9 Western analyses of deprivation of liberty in China FLORA SAPIO
  • 10 Opportunities and challenges for legislative and institutional reform of detention in China ELISA NESOSSI, SARAH BIDDULPH, FLORA SAPIO AND SUSAN TREVASKES
• Index

Contributors

Sarah Biddulph is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2014–2018) and Professor of Law at the Melbourne Law School. She specialises in the research and teaching of Chinese law. Her research focuses on the Chinese legal system with a particular emphasis on legal policy, law making and enforcement as they affect the administration of justice in China. Her particular areas of research are contemporary Chinese administrative law, criminal procedure, labour, comparative law and the law regulating social and economic rights. Her recent publications include: Legal Reform and Administrative Detention Powers in China (2007, CUP); Law and Fair Work in China: Making and Enforcing Labour Standards in the PRC, co-authored with Sean Cooney and Ying Zhu (2013, Routledge); The Politics of Law and Stability in China, co-edited with Susan Trevaskes, Elisa Nesossi and Flora Sapio (2014, Edward Elgar); and The Stability Imperative: Human Rights and Law in China (2015, UBC Press).

Lei Cheng is an Associate Professor of Criminal Procedure Law at Renmin Law School, Renmin University of China (RUC) and Deputy Director of the Centre for Criminal Procedure and Reform at RUC. He has published widely on comparative criminal justice systems and criminal procedure reforms and he has been involved in a number of international research projects and exchanges on criminal justice. Cheng is also Deputy Secretary-General of China’s Criminal Litigation Law Research Association and worked part-time as guest expert at China’s Legislation body, NPC, from September 2011 to March 2012, on a revision of China’s Criminal Procedure Law.

Zhiyuan Guo is an Associate Professor at the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) in Beijing, where she specialises in criminal procedure, evidence, international human rights law, and law and society studies. She is also a pioneer in empirical research in China. She is Deputy Director of the Centre for Criminal Law and Justice, CUPL and a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at US-Asia Law Institute, New York University School of Law. Guo was appointed as Guanghua Visiting Scholar at NYU School of Law from 2008 to 2009 and as Sohmen Visiting Scholar at Faculty of Law, Hong Kong University in 2011. She has published several books in Chinese and also published extensively on academic journals in both Chinese and English.

Enshen Li is an associate lecturer at the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland. His research interests lie in the field of comparative criminal justice, theoretical criminology and socio-legal studies of punishment and society. He specialises in Chinese criminal justice and penal theories and their relevance to social changes in contemporary China. He has...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter 1
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Notes on contributors
• Preface
• 1 Deprivation of liberty under scrutiny—ELISA NESOSSI, SARAH BIDDULPH, FLORA SAPIO AND SUSAN TREVASKES
• PART I Administrative detention
• PART II Criminal justice reforms and deprivation of liberty
• PART III An assessment of the field
• Index