[ { "id": 209481, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 138, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "116\n\nW. ALLYN RICKETT\n\n' Mao Zedong, “Hunan nongmin yundong kaocha baokao,” Mao Zedong xuanji (Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 1964), 16.\n\n* See Patricia Griffin, The Chinese Communist Treatment of Counter-Revolutionaries: 1924-1949. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976.\n\nIt is interesting that in many cases involving homicide resulting from marriage or family problems, the accused was formally sentenced in accordance with the Marriage Law of June 1950, which in itself simply stated that persons guilty of such an offense would bear criminal responsibility before the law.\n\n\"The right of defense was provided for in Art. 12 of the \"Provisional Regulations of the Shanghai People's Court Governing the Disposal of Civil and Criminal Cases\" (Aug. 11, 1949) and in Art. 6 of the \"Organic Regulations of the People's Tribunals\" (July 20, 1950), but was left out of the \"Provisional Organic Regulations of the People's Courts\" (Sept. 3, 1950). I know of no case where defense was actually permitted during the pre-Constitution period. Even appeal was very rare. The first public notice of the use of lawyers that I know of involved thirteen American nationals charged with espionage who were tried and then released in November 1954 by a military tribunal.\n\n冉\n\n* According to an editorial in the Guangming Ribao (Jan. 27, 1957), by 1957 there were some 670 legal advisory offices with 2,100 professional lawyers scattered throughout the country. Fees were paid by clients to the legal advisory office according to their ability to pay. Lawyers were paid salaries by the advisory office. As a defense counsel, people's lawyers were not considered an agent of the accused. They constituted an independent party at the trial and were not bound by the will of the defendant. Their duty was to help clarify the facts and present whatever extenuating circumstances might assist the judges in rendering a fair sentence.\n\n* Codification had been called for as far back as the Yenan Period and in 1948 it was discussed by the Central Committee of the CCP. This led to the formation of a Law Codification Committee in 1950. However, nothing seems to have been done until after the passage of the Constitution. Finally in Nov. 1956 it was announced that a draft criminal code consisting of some 261 articles had been completed by the Law Section of the Standing Committee of the NPC and had been turned over to the Standing Committee's Bills Committee for discussion and amendments.\n\n* Renmin Ribao, Dec. 12, 1957 and Zhenfa yanjiu, 1958, No. 1, 18-23. * Zhengfa yanjiu, 1958, No. 1, 10-17.\n\n10 For an excellent survey of developments during the period 1978-80, see Shao-chuan Leng, \"Criminal Justice in Post-Mao China: Some Preliminary Observations,\" China Quarterly, 87 (Sept. 1981), 440-469.\n\n\"For an English translation of all seven laws, see Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report: PRC, 27 and 30 July 1979. The Criminal Code and Criminal Code of Procedure have also been translated by Jerome Cohen, The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 73,1 (Spring 1982), 135-203, and by Chin Kim, The American Series of Foreign Penal Codes, No. 25 (Littleton, Colorado: Fred B. Rothman & Co., 1982).\n\n12 Article 43 of the Criminal Code limits the use of the death penalty to only \"the most heinous offenses\" (homicide, rape, arson, robbery, dike-breaching, planting explosives, embezzling public property, and counter-revolutionary crimes). It also stipulates that unless immediate execution is mandatory, a two-year reprieve may be granted. If the offender shows evidence of repentance, the death penalty may be converted to a life or term sentence.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209482, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "117\n\nLi Yunchang, \"The Role of Chinese Lawyers,\" Beijing Review, 1980, 46 (Nov. 27) 24-25.\n\nFor a translation of the original Decision see Jerome Cohen, The Criminal Process in the People's Republic of China, 1949-63 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), pp. 249-50. For a translation of the 1979 resolution see \"Supplementary Regulations of the State Council on Rehabilitation Through Labor,\" Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report: PRC, Nov. 30, 1979.\n\n15 For a rather favorable report on one aspect of the programme, see Wei Min, “Reforming Criminals,” Beijing Review, 1981, No. 8 (Feb. 23), 22-29.\n\n16 See Bryan Johnson, \"China Dissidents Fall through Crack in New Legal Code,\" Christian Science Monitor, Jun. 18, 1979: 1, Jay Mathews, \"Chinese revive labor camps for youthful dissidents,\" Washington Post, Jun. 1, 1980, Al and Fox Butterfield, \"Hundreds of Thousands Toil in Chinese Labor Camps,\" New York Times, Jan. 3, 1981, 1,4.\n\n17 According to a New China News Agency report at the time of the conviction of the dissident Wei Jingsheng in October 1979, one of the charges levelled against him is that he had violated these specific provisions of the Constitution. See US, China Review, 4.2 (Mar-Apr. 1980), 8.\n\n18 The Chinese text of the new Constitution was published in the Renmin ribao, Dec. 5, 1982. For a translation see Beijing Review, 1982, 50 (Dec. 27), 10-29.\n\n20 Peng Zhen, \"Report on the Draft of the Revised Constitution of the People's Republic of China,\" Beijing Review, 1982, 50 (Dec. 13), 10-11.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 } ]