Punishments in the Post Re-Education Through Labour World: Questions About Minor Crime in China

Abstract

As controversial as it was during its lifetime, the administrative detention power of Re-education through Labour (RETL) after its abolition has continued to create waves in the Chinese system of punishments. RETL was abolished without putting a clear alternative power or powers in its place. In the post-RETL world a number of basic questions about the scope and structure of China’s system of punishments remain unresolved. What gaps, if any, has abolition of RETL left in the system of punishments? If these gaps exist, what measures, if any, will fill them? This paper first examines the question of whether there is a gap in the system of punishments left by abolition of RETL, and if so what it looks like. It goes on to discuss reforms in criminal and administrative law and debates circulating around the two concepts of minor crime and security punishments.

Keywords: Chinese law, minor crime, administrative punishments, re-education through labour

JEL Classification: K00, K31, K39