The Development and Main Reform of Criminal Procedure Law in China

China’s current “Criminal Procedure Law” was enacted in 1979, and the law established the basic framework of socialist criminal justice system with Chinese characteristics. The amendments in 1996 and 2012 to the “Criminal Procedure Law”, involving the basic principles, procedures, rules and many other aspects of criminal procedure, emphasized balance on punishment of crime and protection of human rights, entity justice and procedure justice. From the development and main reform of China’s Criminal Procedure Law, we can see that China’s Criminal Procedure Law effectively connected with the international justice standards gradually, promoted China’s criminal procedure legal system going to be more scientific, democratic and rational, and reflected the great progress of China’s democracy and legal system construction having been made in the field of criminal justice (Chen Guangzhong 2012; Bian Jianlin, 2012).