In May 2021, GBCC held a second online seminar on evidence standards in criminal procedure between partners at the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), local judges involved in a pilot project and international experts from the UK and the Netherlands. This seminar provided an insight into the legislative progress as well as practice direction in pilot courts in China, while international experts shared best practices and experience in Europe on related matters.
Pilot courts have not been able to fully experiment with pilot rules as the use of online hearings has been adopted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has meant that aspects of the pilot work, such as the promotion of court appearance of witnesses and expert witnesses, have been limited. However, the pilot project has been recognised at the legislative level. The SPC’s Interpretation on the Application of the Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) of the People’s Republic of China was adopted by the SPC Judicial Committee and came into effect on 1 March 2021. The research topic of “general procedures of the first instance in public prosecution cases”, undertaken by criminal judges and judge assistants from one of the pilot courts in relation to this project, was endorsed by the SPC.
During the online seminar, international experts spoke about the topic of conflicting expert evidence and the admissibility of expert evidence, as well as the building of the volunteer team for Witness Services in England and Wales.