Presumption of Innocence in China: Human Rights and Criminal Justice Under the Doctrine of National Conditions

Drawing on broader legal-political discourses within the party-state and institutionalised academia, this book shines a light on one of the most controversial legal principles in Chinese criminal justice: the presumption of innocence.

It argues the reasons why there is no presumption of innocence in China, tracing the curve, or evolution, of academic discourse about presumption of innocence against the backdrop of changing politics, or varying emphases on national conditions, from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping. The book deepens our understanding of the trajectory of criminal justice reforms in the party-state and shows how the more open and liberal phases of the reform era opened up some space for pluralist views and constructive criticism. In comparison, the second wave of autocratisation of the system influenced the conception of the criminal and paved the way for an illiberal turn.

Alexandra Kaiser is a Research Associate in the BMBF project Academic Freedom in the People’s Republic of China at the Institute of Political Science, Friedrich-Alexander University, Germany.