diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING
index 0b8411e65..5711f929a 100644
--- a/HACKING
+++ b/HACKING
@@ -73,43 +73,3 @@ Docstrings
   :returns: description of the return value
 
   """
-
-Text encoding
--------------
-- All text within python code should be of type 'unicode'.
-
-    WRONG:
-
-    >>> s = 'foo'
-    >>> s
-    'foo'
-    >>> type(s)
-    <type 'str'>
-
-    RIGHT:
-
-    >>> u = u'foo'
-    >>> u
-    u'foo'
-    >>> type(u)
-    <type 'unicode'>
-
-- Transitions between internal unicode and external strings should always
-  be immediately and explicitly encoded or decoded.
-
-- All external text that is not explicitly encoded (database storage,
-  commandline arguments, etc.) should be presumed to be encoded as utf-8.
-
-    WRONG:
-
-    mystring = infile.readline()
-    myreturnstring = do_some_magic_with(mystring)
-    outfile.write(myreturnstring)
-
-    RIGHT:
-
-    mystring = infile.readline()
-    mytext = s.decode('utf-8')
-    returntext = do_some_magic_with(mytext)
-    returnstring = returntext.encode('utf-8')
-    outfile.write(returnstring)
diff --git a/manilaclient/base.py b/manilaclient/base.py
index 67544ec80..a8ca16056 100644
--- a/manilaclient/base.py
+++ b/manilaclient/base.py
@@ -183,7 +183,6 @@ class Manager(utils.HookableMixin):
 
     def _build_query_string(self, search_opts):
         search_opts = search_opts or {}
-        search_opts = utils.unicode_key_value_to_string(search_opts)
         params = sorted(
             [(k, v) for (k, v) in search_opts.items() if v])
         query_string = "?%s" % utils.safe_urlencode(params) if params else ''
diff --git a/manilaclient/tests/unit/osc/osc_fakes.py b/manilaclient/tests/unit/osc/osc_fakes.py
index e37089948..702834be9 100644
--- a/manilaclient/tests/unit/osc/osc_fakes.py
+++ b/manilaclient/tests/unit/osc/osc_fakes.py
@@ -48,20 +48,6 @@ TEST_RESPONSE_DICT_V3.set_project_scope()
 TEST_VERSIONS = fixture.DiscoveryList(href=AUTH_URL)
 
 
-def to_unicode_dict(catalog_dict):
-    """Converts dict to unicode dict"""
-
-    if isinstance(catalog_dict, dict):
-        return {to_unicode_dict(key): to_unicode_dict(value)
-                for key, value in catalog_dict.items()}
-    elif isinstance(catalog_dict, list):
-        return [to_unicode_dict(element) for element in catalog_dict]
-    elif isinstance(catalog_dict, str):
-        return catalog_dict + u""
-    else:
-        return catalog_dict
-
-
 class FakeStdout(object):
 
     def __init__(self):
diff --git a/manilaclient/tests/unit/test_utils.py b/manilaclient/tests/unit/test_utils.py
deleted file mode 100644
index add29874a..000000000
--- a/manilaclient/tests/unit/test_utils.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,24 +0,0 @@
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
-# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
-# a copy of the License at
-#
-# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
-# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
-# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
-# under the License.
-
-import testtools
-
-from manilaclient import utils
-
-
-class TestCommonUtils(testtools.TestCase):
-
-    def test_unicode_key_value_to_string(self):
-        src = {u'key': u'\u70fd\u7231\u5a77'}
-        # u'xxxx' in PY3 is str, we will not get extra 'u' from cli
-        # output in PY3
-        self.assertEqual(src, utils.unicode_key_value_to_string(src))
diff --git a/manilaclient/utils.py b/manilaclient/utils.py
index 61c5502d9..8dcc477bc 100644
--- a/manilaclient/utils.py
+++ b/manilaclient/utils.py
@@ -47,22 +47,6 @@ def get_function_name(func):
     return "%s.%s" % (func.__module__, func.__qualname__)
 
 
-def _encode(src):
-    """remove extra 'u' in PY2."""
-    return src
-
-
-def unicode_key_value_to_string(src):
-    """Recursively converts dictionary keys to strings."""
-    if isinstance(src, dict):
-        return dict((_encode(k),
-                    _encode(unicode_key_value_to_string(v)))
-                    for k, v in src.items())
-    if isinstance(src, list):
-        return [unicode_key_value_to_string(l) for l in src]
-    return _encode(src)
-
-
 def safe_urlencode(params_dict):
     """Workaround incompatible change to urllib.parse