Xiao Yang (judge)

Xiao Yang
肖扬
President of the Supreme People's Court
In office
17 March 1998 – 16 March 2008
Preceded byRen Jianxin
Succeeded byWang Shengjun
Minister of Justice
In office
29 March 1993 – 19 March 1998
PremierLi Peng
Preceded byCai Cheng
Succeeded byGao Changli
Personal details
Born1 August 1938
Heyuan, China
Died19 April 2019(2019-04-19) (aged 80)
Beijing, China
Political partyChinese Communist Party
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese蕭揚
Simplified Chinese肖扬
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinXiāo Yáng
Wade–GilesHsiao1 Yang2
IPA[ɕjáʊ jǎŋ]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationChiu Yèuhng
JyutpingCiu3 Joeng4
IPA[tsʰiw˧ jœŋ˩]

Xiao Yang (Chinese: 肖扬; 1 August 1938 – 19 April 2019) was a Chinese judge and politician. He served as minister of Justice from 1993 to 1998 and president of the Supreme People's Court from 1998 to 2008. His tenure as China's Chief Justice was marked by the implementation of major reforms. A key reform was his restoration of the Supreme Court's right of final review for capital punishment cases, which resulted in a sharp reduction in the number of executions in China after 2006. Another of his reforms was to professionalize the rank of judges by requiring most new judges to pass the National Judicial Examination. He also advocated judicial independence in the country, but was ultimately unsuccessful.