The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) is the office of the Prosecutor General of the People's Republic of China, one of the highest legal authorities in the country. The SPP performs and oversees legal investigations and prosecutions which occur at the state and regional levels of the Chinese judicial system.[1]
As stated in a legislative document of the NPC in 1981, the SPC and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate are entitled to issue judicial interpretations either solely or jointly when confronted with concrete issues they need to explain in their daily activities.[2]
In the Chinese legal system, the Procuratorate, the branch of the judicial system responsible for investigating and prosecuting economic crimes including corruption, ‘files’ a case once it determines that a criminal offence has taken place. As such, filing corresponds to an indictment.[3]
Drawing from the Soviet Union model, the public procuratorate was a governmental department that prosecutes criminal offenses.[4]
To execute its duties effectively, the Office of the People's Procurator-General was given the right to request various organs to submit documents concerning laws, decrees, resolutions and orders for reference.[5]
Before the two laws were formally amended, in July 2015 the Supreme People’s Procuratorate launched a two-year pilot program of filing public interest lawsuits, in which 13 provincial procuratorates handled 7,886 public interest cases and filed 934 lawsuits.[6]
The Supreme People's Procuratorate is the highest procuratorial body in the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1954 and has undergone several changes in its history from its inception until the 2010s.
Timeline of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (created by Frangipani13)
