The People’s Republic of China
The People’s Republic of China recognizes only one political party: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its Criminal Justice System gained a legal standard in 1979 after enacting the criminal law and the criminal procedural law and maintains the informal and cultural justice system. The criminal procedures law provided a division of responsibility between the police, procurators, and the courts. One unique characteristic of its criminal justice system is the Procuratorate’s formation responsible for “legal supervision,” exercising its authority independently without any due interference (Terrill 550).
On the other hand, the Islamic Criminal Justice System is established from Islamic Law and Sharia Law. It operates on three principles. It first defines five fundamental rights that people are individually responsible for – religion, life, mind, posterity, and property. The second principle is legality; a crime is only considered a crime only if it’s legally defined. The third principle is on the nonretroactivity of criminal law; it aims to safeguard persons from governmental power abuse (624).
The CCP and Islam are both the core political, criminal justice, and religious systems in their respective jurisdiction areas. Additionally, the systems can be said to be authoritarian; their governance system is arguably totalitarian, with little emphasis on democratic processes. Besides, they also tend to place more emphasis on the moral character and behavior of people. The major difference between the two systems is that, unlike the Socialist Criminal Justice that relies on legal doctrines, the Islamic Criminal Justice is chiefly divinely inspired. It thus lacks a distinction between criminal law and moral law as it relates to criminal justice (626).
In comparison to the US, its criminal justice system emphasizes human rights and individuals’ protection against the state. However, CCP and Islam are not as liberal; criminal justice tends to be more dogmatic.