Victims, Perpetrators, and the Role of Law in Maoist China : A Case-Study Approach

The relationship between politics and law in the early People's Republic of China was highly contentious. Periods of intentionally excessive campaign justice intersected with attempts to carve out professional standards of adjudication and to offer retroactive justice for those deemed to have been unjustly persecuted. How were victims and perpetrators defined and dealt with during different stages of the Maoist era and beyond? How was law practiced, understood, and contested in local contexts? This volume adopts a case study approach to shed light on these complex questions. By way of a close reading of original case files from the grassroots level, the contributors detail procedures and question long-held assumptions, not least about the Cultural Revolution as a period of "lawlessness." Acknowledgements Contents Introduction 1. Beyond “Destruction” and “Lawlessness”: The Legal System during the Cultural Revolution 2. The Intelligence Sleeper Who Never Was: Han Fuying and Case 5004 3. A Different Category of Life: The Counterrevolutionary Case of a Rural Schoolteacher 4. Vetting the People’s Servant: On the Principles of Revolutionary Integrity 5. A Policeman, His Gun, and an Alleged Rape: Competing Appeals for Justice in Tianjin, 1966–1979 6. From Denial to Apology: Narrative Strategies of a “Perpetrator” after the Cultural Revolution 7. The Floating Fate of a Rebel Leader in Guangxi, 1966–1984 Contributors Index

Eine erstmalige Analyse maoistischer Justiz auf Basis von Originalfallakten, die aufgrund ihrer plastischen Details einen tiefen Einblick in die chinesische Rechts-, Politik- und Sozialgeschichte geben. Durch die Betonung der Akteuersebene wird, jenseits von Metadiskursen, der totalitäre Charakter der frühen Volksrepublik China und der mehr oder minder großer Spielraum von Angeklagten, Richtern und politischer Führung ausgelotet.

Der Band versammelt chinesische, europäische und amerikanische Wissenschaftler, um gemeinsam eine Revision des bisherigen Forschungsstandes zu ermöglichen.