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Implementation of Human Rights Treaties by Chinese Courts: Problems and Prospects
Correspondence: * Ph.D. Candidate in International Law, Peking University Law School, China (email: gsandra2002{at}yahoo.com). This article was written with the support of the Australian Endeavour Asia Award and presented on 25 June 2008 at the Postgraduate Workshop of the 16th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law held in Canberra, Australia. Special thanks are due to my supervisor, Prof. BAI Guimei, at Peking University Law School, and Dr Ann Kent, at the Australian National University College of Law. Any errors, however, are my own. The article was finalized in December 2008.
This article explores the implementation of human rights treaties by courts in the People's Republic of China. The general applicability of treaties in China is not mentioned in its Constitution, which leaves the status of treaties unclear in Chinese courts, and varying from area to area. In the human rights area, the application of treaties at the domestic level requires incorporation. The status of general comments and concluding observations made by treaty bodies is unclear, too. On the basis of the current human rights legislation in China, the problems and prospects of four different kinds of litigation (constitutional, civil, criminal and administrative) in Chinese courts are discussed separately.