Study Of The Jury System In Criminal Proceedings

The paper, viewing from angle of jury trial in criminal proceedings, mainly discusses the origin, development, characteristics and functions of jury trial, it also analyses the history and present situation of jury system in our country and provides a concept to reform and perfect the system.The paper contains 4 chapters, and the topic of each chapter is as follows:In chapter one, the paper introduces some concepts in jury system, such as jury, jury system, scope and makeup of jury, verdict principle of jury etc.In chapter two, the paper discusses the origin an evolution of jury trial. At the beginning, jury mainly served for royal administration. After reformed by Henry II, jury system gradually and widely applied in justice realm. Inherited and developed in the United States, the jury system has changed a lot. In the first instance, the jury system played a more positive role than what it is like today in judicial process. At that time, American laws did not distinguish the authority of jury arbitrating matter of fact from that of matter of laws. After discussed in the paper, the author thought that, the origin of jury, which was only a tool for autocratic monarchy, had no connection with democratic ideology. Since the jury more and more like a judger, it became a stronghold that against autocratic monarch and safeguarding rights and interests of people.In chapter three, the paper analyses the characteristics and functions of jury trial, which is helpful to uncover the truth of law cases and realize substantial justice. Jury, representing ideals and objectives of people, strengthens validity of criminal justice system. Generally speaking, jury strengthens governmental democracy.In chapter four titled improvement of China jury system. By analyzing the problems of put jury system in practice, the author concludes that it is necessary to implement jury system in China. At present, it is not suitable to completely borrow anglo-american jury system, but we can choose an intrinsic or gradual way of reform, that is use part of jury system for reference. Some scholars from anglo-american law system suggest that jury trial should partly borrow operations of mixed court trial. This thought of reform, which reflects the trend of integration of the two main law systems, indicates that people's concept and attitude are going to integrate under the world wide globalization background. As the deepening of justice reform in our country, people enhance the human rights protection consciousness, criminal defendants' position are raised, confront between prosecutors and defendants become stronger. To sum up, the People' s jury system is helpful in uncovering the truth of cases and realize substantial justice, we deeply believe that it will gradually realize the value of democracy, justice and freedom.