The Fourth Amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China: Historical and Prognostic Analysis

The paper examines key law-making issues related to the preparation of the fourth amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law of the PRC. The authors conducted a historical analysis of the first three amendments (1996, 2012 and 2018), identified their key content, in particular, the introduction of the presumption of innocence, the establishment of the guilty plea institution, and cooperation with supervisory authorities. Particular attention is given to the discussion about the nature of the upcoming amendment regarding the form of its systematization, in particular, its codified character. The paper analyzes three positions as to the systematization form of the fourth amendment. They are recognition of its codified character in conditions where the Criminal Procedure Law itself does not have a codified form; recognition of the codified character of the Criminal Procedure Law itself from the moment of its adoption; and, accordingly, recognition of the form of re-codification for the fourth amendment, as well as objections to the codified character of the amendment. The authors substantiate their position that the fourth amendment should not be of a codified nature, but should retain the character corresponding to previous amendments. In conclusion, it is proposed to support the concept of the amendment under consideration, focusing on balancing criminal punishment and human rights protection, taking into account the principle of «trial as the central link» in criminal proceedings and the theory of application of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.