On Covert Rules

Due process of law is open, transparent and rational. However, in judicial practices in China, there exist a set of rules which are not authority but function as laws. They are called covert rules in judicial practices as they are not overt to the public, statically, these rules find expression in legal documents, instructions, notices,work reports, summaries of panel discussion etc; dynamically, they are " black case work".This paper attempts to analyze several typical variants of covert rules in ciminal justice practices in China, such as "three ministers' conference", "wrong-ruled case-responsibility-investigating " etc. After the analysis of the different variants of covert rules and their harms to different aspects of judicial system, the author concludes that covert rules have become a root of evils, which directly leads to the violation of the procedure rights of the party concerned and is responsible for the gradual decline in people's trust in justice.The paper also discusses the reasons for the formation of covert rules. The author believes that the imperfection of the current law, the poor legal sense in tradition,irrational rule and regulations all contribute to the formation and development of covert rules, and that the legal subject's quest for his maximum interest might be the main force to fight against those rules. To eliminate those covert rules, the author offers her suggestions: substituting rational overt rules for covert rules; establishing a ciminal justice system centered on human right protection; setting up a rational ciminal justice rules and regulations.Owing to the author's shallow understanding of the covert rules in justice, the paper can only serve as a preliminary study on this issue. More related more profound studies are expected and necessary achieve real 'justice' in ciminal justice.