Bilingual trailer of my PhD thesis "Transparency and legitimacy in Chinese criminal procedure: beyond adversarial dogmas". To be published in September by Pompe Reeks.
In recent years, the legitimacy of China's criminal justice system has been increasingly challenged by the Chinese populace, in part due to the numerous exposed miscarriages of justice. The Chinese academic mainstream as well as the... more
In recent years, the legitimacy of China's criminal justice system has been increasingly challenged by the Chinese populace, in part due to the numerous exposed miscarriages of justice. The Chinese academic mainstream as well as the political and judicial authorities have looked towards the classical Anglo-American model of an adversarial criminal justice system to solve this problem. Reforms were subsequently introduced to add weight to court sessions and to provide external transparency of criminal trials, whilst curtailing the weight of pre-trial proceedings and the case file. Yet, these solutions have failed to restore the legitimacy of China's criminal justice.
This book goes beyond adversarial dogmas and concentrates instead on internal transparency of criminal procedure, presupposing that in a criminal justice system such as that of China internal transparency of criminal procedure is a critical condition for external transparency and crucial to the achievement of legitimacy.
The author proposes to nurture impartiality of public prosecutors and to emphasize internal transparency of criminal procedure. Prosecutorial control over the police and judicial checks on the procuratorates should be improved as well and active judicial investigation restored where necessary. External transparency, on the other hand, needs to be enhanced in a more cautious or internalized way.
As part of a larger research project on the nature, causes and harmful effects of state-corporate-organized crime in Latin America since the 1990s (Damián Zaitch), and a research project on mining in Colombia (Laura Gutiérrez-Gómez), this... more
As part of a larger research project on the nature, causes and harmful effects of state-corporate-organized crime in Latin America since the 1990s (Damián Zaitch), and a research project on mining in Colombia (Laura Gutiérrez-Gómez), this contribution will focus on the activities of the South African gold mining multinational AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) in Colombia, as a form of state-corporate crime. There is an overwhelming body of evidence and research describing various forms of crimes and harms produced by mining companies in Colombia. Their unlawful and unethical behaviour has been strongly resisted and has prompted accusations from courts and civil society organizations. The aim of this chapter is to describe and explain the interconnections between the multinational and governmental bodies, actors and policies, as they engage in, or promote, various forms of criminal, unethical or harmful behaviour. In order to analyse the empirical findings of this particular case, the state-corporate crime model as developed by Kramer and Michalowski (2006) will be re-examined, suggesting an alternative framework that has the notion of harm and accumulation by dispossession at its core.