Xiao Yang | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 肖扬 | |||||||||||||||||||
| President of the Supreme People's Court | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 17 March 1998 – 16 March 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Ren Jianxin | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Wang Shengjun | ||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of Justice | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 29 March 1993 – 19 March 1998 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Premier | Li Peng | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Cai Cheng | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Gao Changli | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 1 August 1938 Heyuan, China | ||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 19 April 2019 (aged 80) Beijing, China | ||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Chinese Communist Party | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 蕭揚 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 肖扬 | ||||||||||||||||||
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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.