Interaction of National Law-Making and International Treaties: The Implementation of the Convention Against Torture in China

Published in: Zhao Yun, Michael Ng (eds.), Chinese Legal Reform and the Global Legal Order: Adoption and Adaptation, Cambridge University Press, 136-155, 2017

This study investigates the link between the obligations of the PRC under the Convention against Torture and the recent amendment of the Criminal Procedure Law as well as the enactment of judicial interpretations in relation to criminal procedure by the SPC and other state organs in 2010. As the implementation of an international treaty through national legislation is only one among many policy objectives, which lawmakers in the Chinese party state take into account when drafting legislation, this investigation attempts to evaluate the impact of the Convention against Torture on the legislative process in relation to other factors that have triggered the change of legislation. An explanation is sought as to why it took the PRC more than 20 years to introduce an exclusionary rule as an effective instrument to reduce the practice of torture. The study is based on an analysis of legal documents and relevant legal academic discourses that allow to draw conclusions as to the extent to which reference to the Convention against Torture has played a role in the process leading to the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Law. Available at SSRN