Mou, Yu and Chen, Hui (2024) 'Guilty Pleas and New Challenges to Criminal Defence Practices in China.' In: Li, Enshen, Yuan, Xiaoyu and Zhang, Yan, (eds.), Criminal Case Dispositions through Pleas in Greater China: Conception, Operation and Contradiction. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 65-94.
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Abstract
The introduction of a new principle, known as Leniency for Pleading Guilty and Accepting Punishment (Plea Leniency), has profoundly changed the landscape of criminal justice in China. Currently, more than 90% of criminal cases are disposed of by this novel approach, presenting significant challenges to criminal defence. Drawing from first-hand resources in 15 Plea Leniency defence cases, this chapter examines the obstacles that have emerged in the new system, designed without incorporating the defence voice. It delineates defence lawyers’ initial struggles, their gradual adaptation to the fast-paced, increasingly opaque process of handling criminal cases, and the uncertainties associated with prosecutorial and judicial practices that have made them more vulnerable. These difficulties highlight the systematic disadvantages and state-induced coercion that further undermine the criminal defence under this new regime, largely driven by cost-effectiveness and increasingly punitive measures.
| Item Type: | Book Chapters |
|---|---|
| SOAS Departments & Centres: | Departments and Subunits > School of Law |
| ISBN: | 9789819718559 |
| DOI (Digital Object Identifier): | https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1856-6_4 |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Jun 2024 07:07 |
| URI: | https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/42131 |
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