The Right to a Fair Trial

This chapter examines a number of rights subsumed under the broader definition of the right to a fair trial, one of the key guarantees in relation to legal proceedings. Specifically, it focuses on those rights that make the PRC’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) particularly problematic and hinder the ratification process. After an overview of the Chinese political-legal context within which trial proceedings take place, the chapter offers an excursus of a number of the fair trial rights set out in international standards, their legal codification and implementation in the PRC. In light of the rights included in the ICCPR, it focuses particularly on the following procedural guarantees: the right to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal; the presumption of innocence; the expeditiousness of trial; and the right to call and examine witnesses.