Research On The Reform Of Chinese Criminal Jury System

Chinese People’s Assessor System is a kind of political system as well as a judicial system. People’s Assessor System is endowed with a lot of missions including letting the people be master of own affairs and participate in the administration of state affair according to law, demonstrating the superiority of socialist democratic politics with Chinese characteristics, promoting judicial democracy and judicial openness, ensuring judicial justice and judicial credibility. From the official point of view, Chinese People’s Assessor System works well since the specific law came into effect. While from the viewpoint of academic research, the implementation of People’s Assessor System remains deeply disturbing and many new and old problems stay unsolved. In the recent pilot reform of People’s Assessor System led by Supreme People’s Court, in order to get rid of some long-stand ing problems, innovator put forward many good measures as well as some design defects and omissions. At this moment, the author also presents a bit of my own views and opinions about the reform of Chinese People’s Assessor System and hopes to do a little contribution to our country’s judicial reform.This thesis consists of four parts.In Chapter One, in answer to some academic critics about the recent pilot reform of People’s Assessor System, the author thinks that People’s Assessor System is not meaningless, it plays an instructive role in educating citizens and enriching their law cultivation, improving judicial system, increasing judicial credibility, and so on. Therefore, People’s Assessor System in Chinese context has its special meanings and we should conserve it. From my point of view, Chinese People’s Assessor System can get out of the embarrassing situation and run well, the core lies in how to design a perfect system and whether the law is put into practice.In Chapter two, the author focuses on the birth background and main content of Japanese Saiban-In System and Korean Citizen Participation in Criminal Trial System. The reason why we choose Japan and Korea as the object of extraterritorial study is that China, Japan and Korea all locate in East Asia and they have similar culture tradition, legal system and social structure. Moreover, Japanese and Korean Lay Participation System are both products of recent times and both of them are designed on the basis of their country’s actual situation. So compared with European and American countries, Japan and Korea are more worthy of our learning and reference.Chapter three mainly analyzes the problems and reasons of People’s Assessor System in judicial practice. The dilemma of People’s Assessor System lies in:1.Scope of application is oversized; 2.Selection mechanism is undemocratic, the wide representation and randomness cannot be reflected; 3.Training and examine system, as well as tenure system is not reasonable, the juror’s identity independence cannot be reflected; 4. Collegiate bench’s division of powers and competence is not specific and mechanism of participation is not sound; 5.Lack of protection and punishment led to inefficient participation. In addition, the author also analyzes the pilot reforms of People’s Assessor System in Henan Province and Jiangsu Province, pointing out their successes and failures.In the last Chapter, according to the problems in judicial practice, the author contributes his ideas to the reform approaches of People’s Assessor System. The author thinks that if Chinese People’s Assessor System wants to get out of present predicament, measures must be taken as follows:1.Scope of application should be limited in major criminal cases; 2.Abolish training and examine system and tenure system; 3.Promote Selection mechanism; 4.Enhance the proportion of the number of collegiate bench and redistribute its powers and competence; 5.Guarantee the juror’s preliminary right of reading case record; 6. Improve the rules of collegiate bench deliberation; 7.Establish juror’s protection and punishment mechanism.