On the afternoon of November 29, 2025, a seminar on “Revision of Criminal Procedure Law and Improvement of Compulsory Measures and Retrial System” was held in Beijing, hosted by Southern Weekend Newspaper and Litigation Case Research Center of Renmin University of China. The seminar focused on many experts and scholars in the legal academia, the procuratorial authorities and lawyers in the field of practice experts, on the fourth revision of the Criminal Procedure Law facing the reform of the coercive measures system and the improvement of the retrial appeal system and other topics, in-depth discussions, participants have to make suggestions and recommendations.
The meeting was hosted and addressed by Li Fenfei, Professor of Renmin University of China Law School and Director of Litigation Case Study Center. Chen Weidong, Professor of Renmin University of China Law School and Executive Vice President of China Society of Criminal Procedure Law, made a special speech, introducing the relevant contents of the draft revision of the Criminal Procedure Law of the Fourth Session of the National People's Congress by the Legal Working Committee of the National People's Congress and elaborating mainly on the revision of the system of coercive measures, the improvement of the retrial appeal system and other key issues of the revision of the Criminal Procedure Law. It also mainly elaborated on the key issues of the revision of the Criminal Procedure Law, such as the revision of the compulsory measures system and the improvement of the retrial appeal system. Mr. Yuan Qiguo, Vice President and Secretary General of the China Association for the Study of the Integrity Law, delivered a keynote speech on the issues related to the residence under surveillance and the proposals for amending the law, and put forward the reform concepts of the fourth revision of the Criminal Procedure Law on the residence under surveillance. Wang Xinqing, Professor of the Law School of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and former Dean of the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Zhang Jianwei, Professor of the Law School of Tsinghua University and Vice President of the Chinese Society of Criminal Procedure Law, made speeches on the revision of the Criminal Procedure Law and structural reform of the coercive measures system, as well as on the implementation of basic principles of the reform of the coercive measures system in terms of constitutional law and protection of human rights, etc. respectively.
King&Capital Law Firm partner Mr. Wang Jiaming was invited to participate in this seminar and made a keynote speech on the improvement of criminal retrial system and the fourth revision of the Criminal Procedure Law. Combining his rich experience in handling criminal cases, especially the practice of handling retrial appeals, Mr. Wang pointed out that the current retrial appeal system in China is facing several major problems, including the high legal standard of the subject matter of retrial appeals, the difficulty of filing retrial appeals, the long cycle of retrial appeals, and the chance of success of the appeals, which results in the weak corrective function of China's criminal retrial system, and the judicial organs are constrained by the assessment mechanism and the wrongdoing of the case when faced with the retrial appeals. The judicial authorities, when faced with retrial appeals, are subject to the constraints of the assessment mechanism and the accountability system for wrongful convictions, and it is very difficult to get rid of the obstructive influence of the administrative function on the judicial process. In addition, Ms. Wang is particularly concerned about the role of the procuratorate's protest in the retrial process and the role of the procuratorate in retrial cases. She talked about, at present in our country retrial cases, by the procuratorate against the prosecution of the majority of retrial proceedings against the defendant, such as not guilty against guilty, misdemeanor against felony, the procuratorate in the retrial proceedings of the prosecution function and prosecution attribute is obvious, detached from the procuratorate as a “supervisor” of the legal image. Therefore, on the occasion of the fourth revision of the Criminal Procedure Law, she said that the adjustment and improvement of the retrial system should also give due consideration to the return of the procuratorial authorities to the role of legal supervisors, and increase the proportion of cases in which the defendant's interests are protested, so as to truly give full play to the corrective function and remedial attributes of the retrial system.
Through in-depth dialogues between academics and practitioners, this seminar has gathered a lot of consensus on the improvement of coercive measures and the reform of the retrial procedure system, absorbed the wisdom of all circles and provided feasible suggestions for the fourth revision of the Criminal Procedure Law, which was unanimously affirmed and highly praised by the experts and scholars and the attendees.
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