The Shanghai trial of Rio Tinto iron ore negotiator Stern Hu and his colleagues Liu Caikui, Ge Mingqiang and Wang Yong, on charges of bribery, has been given plenty of media attention in Australia in the past week. Coverage has been focused on the vagaries of the Chinese justice system, its secretiveness and the fact that it does not, in the eyes of many, measure up to Australian legal practice.
But such a sense of triumphalism on the part of Australia should be tempered by the reality that elements of its much vaunted English common-law tradition are also less than transparent and fair to an accused person.