Recently, the Court of Lixia District, Jinan City, CCP issued an article entitled “Supreme Court Issues Article: Judgment Without Legal Basis Should Be Guided by Core Values! (implemented on March 1)”, stating that in future cases without legal basis, judges can “apply socialist core values to explain the law and reasoning”. The article was widely circulated on the Internet and sparked an outcry.
On February 22, the Chinese Communist Party‘s official media, Penghuang News Network, reprinted an article entitled “Supreme Court Issues Article: Judgments Without Legal Basis Should Be Guided by Core Values! (implemented on March 1),” the article.
According to the article, the Supreme Court recently issued the “Guidance on In-depth Promotion of the Integration of Socialist Core Values into the Interpretation of Law and Reasoning in Judicial Documents”. The article declares that the incorporation of socialist core values into legal cases is “an effective way to enhance the credibility and transparency of judicial decisions”.
The Opinions list cases that should be adjudicated by “strengthening the application of socialist core values”. These include cases involving national interests, major public interests and widespread social concern; cases involving Epidemic prevention and control, rescue and disaster relief, protection of martyrs, self-defense, and emergency evasion, which may lead to social moral evaluation; cases involving the elderly, women, children, the disabled and other vulnerable groups and special group protection, which are controversial and may lead to widespread social concern; cases involving public order and morality, customs and traditions, equality of rights and nationalities, and the use of core social values. Customs and traditions, equality of rights, ethnicity and religion, etc., the parties to the lawsuit there is a large dispute and may cause widespread concern in society.
The Opinions also stipulate that in cases where there are normative legal documents, judges should apply the socialist core values to interpret the law in addition to referring to the relevant provisions of the normative legal documents; in civil and commercial cases where there are no normative legal documents as the direct basis for adjudication, judges should use the most similar legal provisions as the basis for adjudication, in addition to applying custom; in cases involving multiple value orientations, judges should use the socialist core values as a guide. In cases involving multiple values, judges should judge and weigh the cases based on socialist core values in addition to the spirit of legislation and legal principles.
The full text of the above article is nearly 4,000 words, in short, there is a legal basis to refer to the socialist core values for ruling; no legal basis directly according to the socialist core values for guiding the ruling, “Opinions” took effect on March 1 this year.
While the Chinese Communist Party has been talking about “rule by law” in recent years, the above-mentioned Opinions of the Supreme Court have made the law, which has been the basis for adjudicating cases, the accompaniment of socialist core values, causing public outcry. Beijing lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan tweeted, “Times are different, that is, without a legal basis, the court can also make a verdict.”
Cai Xia, a retired professor from the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said, “Politics is in command, and politics is in command of everything. Having experienced the Cultural Revolution and the class struggle, I feel that there is nothing new under the sun when I look at the changes in mainland China in the past few years. Many people under the age of 50 do not understand what happened during the Cultural Revolution, but people over 60 should have memories of it.”
Cai Shenkun, a well-known Writer and one of Phoenix’s top ten influential bloggers in 2011 and 2012, posted on Sina Weibo, “During the Cultural Revolution, revolutionary values were used as the basis, and those countless people who were brutally persecuted to death became counter-revolutionaries. The rulers thought the truth was in their hands, and the Soup was changed over and over again and the Medicine was still the same. Now no longer mention the class struggle nor the revolution, replaced by the core values of socialism, most of the ideas are not willing to lonely dare to speak, and will be held a new hat, in addition to seeking nuisance is against the core values.”
Netizen comments (Photo source: microblog screenshot)
There are also netizens said, “the Chinese Communist Party does not want the bottom this Time, the real meaning of the Chinese Communist Party rule by law is: according to the ideas of officials to govern the nation”, “even the sack crime are too lazy to weave it. Opposition to Xi’s core can be criminalized, and indeed step by step towards the Cultural Revolution”, “seriously, I really admire China’s Supreme Court, the hand when it comes to strike, as long as the party needs. When justified, heavy-handed combat, unreasonable when the scoundrel”, “the holy what to say is what. TV dramas bandits and hoodlums in the black boss most often said a prophecy: ‘What king’s law, what I say is the king’s law! In the past, the government has been able to make a decision on the core values of the law, and on the core values of the law. Conclusion: core values are the real law.” …….
As of press time, the above article in the surging news network is no longer searchable, suspected to be deleted.
Netizen comments (Photo source: Weibo screenshot)
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