Criminal Law in China | Dan in China

This semester I?m taking a course in Chinese Criminal Law. On the first day, our professor told us that he used to be a judge in Xinjiang. When I asked him about his background, he told us something like this: ?I graduated from college in the late 1980?s and then went to Xinjiang to work as a judge. After doing this for five years, I decided I wanted to go to law school.? What? Shocked by this, I asked again just to make sure I understood correctly. He repeated that he only attended law school after working as a judge. Indeed, prior to 2001?s Judge Law, the only requirement for being a judge in China was that you were at least 23 and had not had your political rights ?stripped.? According to this 2006?China Law and Governance Review article, in order to now work as a judge, you need to have a law degree or to have passed the judicial exam. I?m not sure if in 2012 this is still true, or if both are now requirements. In any case, this tidbit about judges in China previously not needing to go to law school was the first of many interesting things we?ve learned about Chinese Criminal Law and the Chinese legal system so far. Here are some of the other things we?ve discussed, which I thought I?d share:

1. There is a minimum amount of money that needs to be stolen from someone in order for it to be a criminal offense. The amount is different depending on the city and province. For example, in Nanjing it?s 1000 RMB, in Beijing it?s 3000 RMB, in Shenzhen it?s 2000 RMB, and in Xinjiang it?s only 500 RMB. If someone stole 999 RMB from me today, technically they could not be charged criminally. There are procedural laws that allow police to detain the culprit, but not for more than 15 days.
2. A similar legal principle exists when dealing with those who sell pirated DVDs. In Nanjing, so long as you sell less than ten DVDs, it?s not a criminal offense. Whether this means selling ten at a given time, a given location, or in total at many different times and locations is not clear to me.
3. A Chinese person tried and found innocent of a criminal offense in the U.S. who comes back to China could still be tried and found guilty of the same crime.
4. A Chinese person tried and found guilty of a criminal offense in the U.S. who comes back to China after being released could be tried and found guilty again. However, our professor emphasized that the Chinese judge would consider the time already served in the U.S., and likely regard this as part of any new sentence.
5. Non-corporal criminal sentences in China can at maximum be for 25 years.
6. In China, ?if someone hits another person and this person dies, but it?s discovered that the person that died had a heart condition or other ailment that the first person wasn?t aware of, then they wouldn?t necessarily be given a murder charge. If the first person didn?t intend to kill the second person, and had no idea about this person?s medical ailment, then while the first person could still be charged criminally, he would not be charged with murder.

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Source: http://dan-in-china.com/2012/03/04/criminal-law-in-china/

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