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The People versus Tai Hung-sheng

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Andrew Watson
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Extract

Opportunities to observe a people's court in action dealing with a criminal cases are relatively rare. Therefore, the following summary of the trial of an embezzler at the Hungkou District People's Court, Shanghai, which I attended on the morning of 14 December 1977, may offer some additional understanding of the way the legal system currently works in China. The visit to the court formed part of a tour by a group mainly drawn from the University of Adelaide. The fact that we were invited to attend the court, however, was mainly due to the presence among us of the attorney-general of South Australia, Mr Peter Duncan. The visit was preceded by a meeting with two judges of the Shanghai Higher People's Court who outlined in fairly familiar and general terms the basic structure of the Chinese legal system. The judges also accompanied us to the district court.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 78 , June 1979 , pp. 360 - 365
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1979

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References

1. The new constitution adopted in March 1978 has returned the power to initiate cases to the revitalized procuracy.

2. As is later made clear the actual sum involved in the charge was 609.60 yüan though Tai here admitted to 620 yüan.

3. Thus disputes over property or between labour and capital which once occupied a major proportion of court time in China have virtually disappeared as a result of the political and social changes since 1949.