Four decades had elapsed since the first Criminal Procedure Law was enacted in China.During the past forty years,Chinese Criminal Procedure Law went through several rounds of revisions.This paper examines Chinas criminal procedure law reforms from a historical perspective.By looking back to the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law,this paper analyzes the backgrounds and specific reasons why each amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law carries different characteristics.The first amendment was idealistic because it was dominated by legal scholars and primarily based on comparative study.In contrast,the subsequent amendment became more pragmatic because it was conducted by legal professionals and has drawn lessons from the first-round reform and utilized empirical study and pilot projects in the legislative process.
