Great honour: Professors Chen Guangzhong and Fan Chongyi present a Letter of Appointment to Director of Public Prosecutions Grenville Cross.

Director of Public Prosecutions Grenville Cross has been appointed Adjunct Professor of Law by the China University of Political Science & Law. This is in recognition of his contribution to the work of its Procedural Law Research Centre. His appointment runs until 2007.

The centre is the only procedural law research institute on the Mainland concerned with the country's reform of criminal procedure law. Mr Cross has been associated with the university for the past decade.

In 1994, he participated in an international symposium on criminal procedure in Beijing organised by the university to consider changes to the 1979 Criminal Procedure Law, and advised upon the draft of the 1996 Criminal Procedure Law, which came into effect in 1997.

In 1998-2000, Mr Cross worked with Professor Chen Guangzhong and the Centre on the Sino-German project on Alternatives to Prosecution, which was facilitated by the Max Planck Institute of Germany.

In 2002, Mr Cross joined in the centre's examination of changes to the Mainland's laws of evidence in criminal cases. This year, he has been advising the centre upon the viability of criminal pre-trial procedure reforms.

Mr Cross described his appointment as "a great honour".

"The pace of change in criminal procedure in the Mainland in recent times has been remarkable. Much has been achieved, and this is good both for the Mainland's modernisation and for the rule of law. There is, however, still a long way to go. I look forward to assisting mainland reformers in whatever way I can. China deserves an advanced system of criminal justice," he said.