Pre-1949 Development of the Communist Chinese System of Justice

Before establishing the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese Communists through the years had instituted revolutionary laws and courts in areas under their control. Many features of “socialist legality” in Communist China today have their roots back in the early years of the revolution. In this article I shall attempt to examine the pre–1949 development of the system of “people's justice” through: the Soviet period, 1927–34, the Yenan period, 1935–45, and the post-war period 1945–49.