The highest body of the Chinese judiciary is subordinate to the Communist Party of China and Judges Heads have mandates
The Supreme Popular Court (STP) is China’s maximum judiciary and is responsible for making decisions that have national effects, as well as supervising lower court courts. It is the equivalent of the Supreme Court (STF) of Brazil.
The comparison with the Brazilian Court ends in the sphere of the power of its decisions, as the configuration of the Chinese court is quite different from its Brazilian counterpart.
An example is that STP leaders have different attributions from STF ministers and the Chinese court has a strong influence from the PCP (Communist Party of China), while Brazil’s Supreme Court is independent of the Brazilian Executive Power.
STP leaders are not like the STF ministers. Its president is elected by APN (National Popular Assembly) – equivalent to the National Congress of Brazil – for a 5 -year term. In Brazil, ministers can occupy the position until it is 75 years old.
The mandate can be extended once again, while the president can be removed from office by APN at any time.
The STP head chairs the STP Judicial Committee and supervises the interpretation and application of national laws in several cases judged by the Chinese Supreme Court. It has the help of 6 vice-presidents and other department heads within the STP.
Vice-presidents are also pointed out by APN. Thus, they reach the power posts of STP people with clear alignment to the CCP. Chinese congress members can also remove vice presidents if they understand that their performances are short of expected.
Another function of the judicial committee is to elaborate guidelines for the fulfillment of Chinese laws. It publishes case dossiers as examples to be followed and guides in the implementation and execution of the penalties.
In all, the STP has about 400 judges, which focus on the tens of thousands of cases that reach the Chinese Superior Court every year. Some cases considered to be most important should be chancelled by the Judicial Committee.
The position of STP president is currently Zhang Jun. He was elected by APN in 2023 and will be in office at least until 2028. Jun has been a member of the CCP since 1974.
The STP acts in the first instance in cases of its jurisdiction or that it is competent to judge. He is the appellate instance against sentences of the higher popular courts, the cuts of 2nd hierarchical position in the Chinese judicial model.
All death penalties defined in China must be subjected to STP for revision and approval.
It is not possible to appeal from an STP decision. In some cases, the defendant may present that there were evidence or other serious errors in the case and request a new trial. The Attorney’s Office needs to agree with the defense’s arguments.
Unlike Brazil and the United States, they are not a number of 11 or 9 judges. In the Chinese system, there is the central committee that guides the application of laws, while it is up to hundreds of judges within the STP to execute them.
Some judgments are transmitted on the Chinese Corte Supreme Court. Cases of crimes against the Chinese nation or violent crimes are not transmitted.
Chinese Justice Reforms
In your book the researcher and professor at the Beijing Language and Culture University, Evandro Menezes de Carvalho, writes that in the early decades after the Chinese revolution that gave rise to the Popular Republic of China, the courts in the country were an instrument of class struggle.
“Invariably, the rights of the accused, especially in criminal cases, were ignored. The justice system resembled an inquisitorial system.”wrote Carvalho. “Decisions were given based on political considerations and authority arguments, not analyzes supported by legal reasoning”he wrote.
In this context, the Chinese judicial system had little credibility inside and outside China. From 1978, with the process of renovation and openness – which sought to attract foreign investments to the country – the focus of the Chinese Communist Party was to increase the credibility of its courts and rule out the idea of an inquisitory system.
The Chinese government has established a series of reforms to improve judicial proceedings and increase the independence of magistrates in conducting legal proceedings. The expression “rule of law” entered the Chinese Constitution in 1999 via an amendment.
The CCP remains with a strong influence on the Chinese judiciary, but unlike past decades the model has evolved to open more spaces to the technical arguments and also to the specialization of the judges.
Media coverage
Unlike Brazil, Chinese media give little prominence to STP decisions. Supreme Court leaders are rarely cited in reports of major vehicles and their names appear only when they are elected to their positions.
Judicial coverage is limited to sentence publications in cases of national interest, such as politicians who were convicted of corruption, or when the STP president gives a speech at APN.
