Supreme Supervisors? Building the People’s Procuracy, 1949–1961

This article interrogates the main events in procuratorial development from 1949 to 1961. Its aim is to better understand the procuracy during the Maoist era by reframing debates about its development along a spectrum: from primarily internal debates that challenged the development of the institution to external debates that challenged the role of the institution. These two dimensions also clarify how the procuracy reflected the politics of the time, especially issues of state construction and building legal knowledge, both within the state and among the “people.” The article shows that “internal” debates stemmed from the largely elite-centered and technocratic concerns of internal organization; “external” debates connected, instead, to broader concerns about the socialist legal project and the procuracy’s place in it. Reframing the institution’s history in this way enables us to understand the concepts and issues shaping the procuracy that crossed “period” boundaries and how responses to those challenges changed over time. Internal limitations (due to lack of resources) and external challenges (to develop flexible methods for accomplishing institutional goals while appearing to serve national objectives) are entwined, making the procuracy from 1949 to 1961 a site of tension between law and policy as well as a locus of contestation about the role of law in Maoist China.