Death Penalty in the People's Republic of China

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the view on the death penalty problematic in contemporary People's Republic of China from the perspective of the organization China Against Death Penalty (CADP) and its founder, a human rights activist, Dr. Teng Biao. The focal point of this thesis lies particularly on one hand in the analysis of the CADP Report, a document compiled by CADP, which describes the situation tied with potential abolition of the death penalty and discusses the relevant amendments to the criminal law and criminal procedure law, on the other hand in depicting the opinions of Teng Biao and putting them in context with available English written materials on the subject of death penalty in China. The thesis begins with an introduction of Teng Biao and the CADP itself, then describes CADP's view on the current situation around the death penalty and the recent legislative changes concerning the capital punishment. The last part of this thesis speculates about the possible future development of the death penalty in Chinese cultural and legislative environment. This thesis also provides a glossary and a list of capital offences as stipulated by the Criminal Law of the PRC