The first step of the long march: implementing the exclusionary rules in China

After years of efforts, the exclusionary rules have finally found their foothold in Chinese statutory law. However, the initial reform fervour has given way to a difficult slog of changing actual practice since the rules were officially established. This article is based on a comprehensive empirical survey of the implementation of the exclusionary rules. The author found that eforts to implement the new rules are encountering significant challenges. It is usually difficult to get claims of torture raised in court proceedings, to obtain genuine investigations by the procuratorate, and to get illegally obtained evidence excluded in court. In the cases resulting in exclusion of illegally obtained evidence, very few led to acquittal. There were multiple contributing factors to courts’ failure to implement the rules. The most important reason is the current legislation did not provide clear and readily applicable guidance for practitioners to implement the new rules. Other reasons include the absence o...