Opinion | Time to put China's amended criminal law to the test

The good news as 2013 opens is that there is movement in judicial reform in China as amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law come into effect. Among other things, the amended law offers protection against self-incrimination and excludes the use of illegally obtained evidence. Such reforms were long overdue.

To be consistent with the new law, the Ministry of Public Security has released regulations including a provision that "bans coerced confessions and torture". Last week, the president of the Supreme People's Court, Wang Shengjun, made a major pronouncement on "judicial impartiality", calling it "the lifeblood of the court, and the cornerstone of public trust".

These developments follow the issuance of a white paper by Beijing, which acknowledged an urgent need for judicial reform, though it was silent on judicial independence. The judiciary currently follows orders from the Communist Party. This, too, needs to change.

While the white paper was dismissed by some critics as nothing but a whitewash, one observer, Stanley Lubman, a long-time specialist on Chinese law, discerned encouraging signs that the party might be willing to loosen its grip on the judicial system. "Unlike previous Chinese government white papers on law," he wrote in his Wall Street Journal blog, "the Communist Party is never mentioned in the latest document."

While previous white papers emphasised that reform is to be carried out "under the leadership of the Communist Party", the latest document, he said, "celebrates the accomplishments of 'China' and not the Communist Party".

The amended Criminal Procedure Law includes the phrase "respect and protect human rights" as a general principle, and this is considered one of the law's key features. Unfortunately, in practical terms, it may not amount to much.