Performance-based evaluation, state compensation and judicial ecology: dynamics of China’s detention review practice

Through participatory observation and in-depth interviews with thirty-four practitioners, this article pierces the veil of the dynamics of China’s pretrial detention system by looking into various socio-legal factors which may affect law enforcement in China. When the prosecutors make their decisions on detention in practice, a variety of factors such as state compensation, performance-based evaluation as well as judicial ecology such as public opinion, power struggle, and judicial coordination all play a role. The dynamics of China’s detention system, through governing the prosecutors’ daily operations and the procuratorate’s routine policy-making, often distort the pretrial detention system that is mainly regulated by the Criminal Procedure Law and in practice, result in a high rate of custody. The dynamics also suggest a non-autonomous criminal justice system in China, meaning that extra-legal factors usually influence, complicate, and sometimes even re-direct China’s development of the rule of law.