Despite a series of legal reforms in China, criminal injustices have recurred. Current research has commonly suggested the lack of independence of Chinese legal institutions and autonomy. But some important issues have not been adequately and systematically addressed. How does the lack of independence affect the daily operation of the criminal justice system? How do the legal institutions affect individual citizens’ justice? Based on a collection of more than 160 cases and interviews with 15 legal professionals, this study examines the causes of criminal injustices in China. It identifies several sets of factors that have caused criminal injustices in China: (1) Conflict of interests between public units and individuals;(2) legal agents’ motivation for promotion; (3) local autho...[ Read more ]

Despite a series of legal reforms in China, criminal injustices have recurred. Current research has commonly suggested the lack of independence of Chinese legal institutions and autonomy. But some important issues have not been adequately and systematically addressed. How does the lack of independence affect the daily operation of the criminal justice system? How do the legal institutions affect individual citizens’ justice? Based on a collection of more than 160 cases and interviews with 15 legal professionals, this study examines the causes of criminal injustices in China. It identifies several sets of factors that have caused criminal injustices in China: (1) Conflict of interests between public units and individuals;(2) legal agents’ motivation for promotion; (3) local authorities’ intervention; (4)inefficient checks on legal organs; and (5) technical factors. This study also shows that external assistance remains to be crucial to the correction of criminal injustices in China. This paper argues that the strong tension between judicial accountability and judicial independence in post-reform China has created a dilemma. On one hand, most wrongful convictions are unintended consequences of the judicial accountability system; on the other hand, the correction of wrongful convictions relies heavily on external intervention. Therefore, the party-state has to extended more efforts to address this dilemma in order to build a healthy legal system.

Keywords: Wrongful Convictions, Causes, Correction, China