Abstract: The Chinese Criminal Procedure Law has undergone three revisions since its enactment in 1979, and its Article 1 went through three changes in the 1996 revision alone. This article stipulates that the legislative purpose of the Criminal Procedure Law is to ensure the correct implementation of the Criminal Law and that its legislative basis is to practice the spirit and principles of the Constitution. The title of Chapter One in Part One of the current Criminal Procedure Law, namely “Tasks and Basic Principles”, fails to encompass the legislative purpose and basis of Article 1 and should be amended to read “General Provisions” in order to be both overarching and inclusive. At the same time, the phrase “to ensure procedural fairness” should be added to Article 1 to establish the dual legislative purpose of “pursuing the substantive truth and procedural fairness”. In addition, attention should be paid to the implementation of and connection with the spirit and norms of the Constitution and to avoiding conflicts between relevant provisions, such as between “public hearing” and “public trial” and between “amnesty” and “implicit amnesty”. 

Key Words: legislative purpose, legislative basis, general provisions, public hearing, amnesty

Author: Dong Kun, research fellow, CASS Institute of Law; professor and doctoral supervisor, Law School of the University of CASS.

Source: 5 (2023) Seeking Truth.