Judicial Application of International Human Rights Treaties in China

Since the Chinese Constitution does not stipulate the status of international treaties in the domestic legal system,the question of whether the domestic court can apply international human rights treaties keeps obscure all the time.China’s official statement and academic opinions generally believe that the domestic court couldn ’t resort to the human rights treaties.In recent years,however,several cases have come out involving direct reference to human rights treaties by the court.The following factors contribute together to the direct reference:the inward-looking nature of international human rights treaties,specific requirements of human rights treaties,and the possible institutional room in Chinas’ s current legal system.Take the view off ulfilling international human rights obligations,the practice of judicial application should be fully affirmed.Nevertheless,it should also be noted that relevant practice is still in its infancy,there are some problems such as inconsistent understanding and non-standard application.From the perspective of top-level design,it is necessary to provide a normative basis for the practice of the court,so as to make the international human rights treaties play their due role.