Wrongful Convictions: The Useful Injustice?

Abstract

Since the mid-2000s, the Chinese discourse on law and justice has increasingly become associated with accounts of wrongful convictions.Footnote1 The Chinese media has been publishing stories of individuals wrongly convicted since the early 1990s.Footnote2 Disclosure of such cases has generated public outcry and intense domestic debates through the Chinese media among legal scholars, practitioners and political authorities. Through the decade 2005–2014, new revelations of errors of justice snowballed, at times becoming explosive news story. Thus, because the disclosure of wrongful convictions challenge the legitimacy of the authorities and their ability to rule according to law, addressing this issue has become a compelling priority for Chinese leaders. Show more