Study On The Right Of Jurors To Participate In Criminal Procedure

The people’s jury system in China is a judicial system with Chinese characteristics,which plays an important role in promoting judicial democracy and maintaining judicial justice.The Law of the People’s Republic of China on people’s assessors,which has attracted much attention,was promulgated on April 27,2018.This legislation has made important changes in the rights of jurors to participate in the trial,which is a summary of the practical experience of the reform of the people’s jury system in recent years.Although the law gives criminal jurors a wide range of rights to participate in criminal proceedings to a certain extent,and establishes the status of "the same duty and the same rights" for jurors and professional judges,however,the jury’s right to participate in criminal proceedings does not play a substantial role in judicial practice,and the phenomenon of "jury formalization" still exists within a certain scope.This article will focus on the participation rights of jurors in criminal proceedings,and sort out the specific rights enjoyed by jurors in criminal proceedings on the basis of clarifying the considerations of the needs of jury participation rights in criminal proceedings in our country.summarize and analyze the current situation of its exercise,existing problems and reasons,through the comparison and analysis of the provisions on the rights of jurors in criminal proceedings in countries and regions that adopt different jury modes.Based on the reality of our country and drawing lessons from foreign useful experience,this paper probes into the perfect countermeasures to ensure that jurors effectively exercise their trial rights and play their essential role in criminal proceedings.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the text is divided into four parts.The first part is an overview of the right of jurors to participate in criminal proceedings.This part introduces the definition and characteristics of the right of juror to participate in criminal procedure in our country,the development and evolution of the right of juror to participate in trial and its specific content.The trial authority of jurors in criminal proceedings refers to a series of judicial rights with unique Chinese characteristics enjoyed by jurors in the process of participating in the trial of criminal cases,with the characteristics of temporary,restrictive,democratic and independent.The trial rights of jurors in criminal proceedings in China have experienced two periods of development and evolution from the same duty and the same power to the separation of functions and powers,and in this process,the trial rights of jurors have been gradually clarified and refined.The factors that the law gives jurors the right to participate in the trial include the criminal trial mode of our country,the value pursuit of the jury system and the role orientation of jurors;from the perspective of legal norms,criminal jurors have important substantive rights to participate in the trial,such as marking papers before court,asking questions in court,obtaining the instructions of judges,expressing opinions and voting independently,and knowing the results of the verdict.The second part is the analysis of the current situation of the exercise of the right of jurors to participate in the trial in the criminal procedure.There still exists the phenomenon of "formality" and "formalization" in the exercise of jurors’ right to participate in criminal proceedings in our country,which is embodied in the following aspects: first,the convenience provided by the court is not in place,and jurors themselves do not attach importance to the right to review papers and are lazy to ask questions in court.Third,professional judges lack the awareness of respecting the independent status of jurors and their rights to participate in the trial,and there exists the problem of improper instructions of judges;fourth,the lack of independence of jurors to express their opinions and exercise their voting rights when participating in the evaluation;fifth,in practice,the right of jurors to know the verdict is nonexistent.This paper summarizes and analyzes the causes of the above problems in the exercise of jury rights in criminal judicial practice,which are not only conceptual factors,but also power constraints,system design and job security factors.The third part is the stipulation and analysis of the right of jurors to participate in the extraterritorial criminal procedure.This part summarizes and sorts out the provisions on the right of jurors to participate in criminal proceedings in representative countries and regions with different jury modes,compares and analyzes them,and on the basis of judicial practice in our country,to explore its characteristics and legislative experience and specific institutionalized design that can be used for reference by our country.The fourth part is the countermeasures to improve the effectiveness of the right of jurors to participate in the trial in criminal proceedings.The concrete countermeasures to ensure the effectiveness of the right of jurors to participate in criminal proceedings include the following aspects: first,it is necessary to reverse the concept and strengthen the publicity and education of the system,so as to make the concept of judicial democracy and the consciousness of public participation deeply rooted in the hearts of the people;Second,balance the relationship between professional judges and jurors,emphasize the responsibility of professional judges to actively guide jurors to exercise their rights to participate in the trial,strengthen the guidance and prompt efforts,and at the same time protect the rights of jurors to judge independently,so as to reduce the power constraints of professional judges on jurors and create good conditions for them to perform their duties in accordance with the law.Third,from the level of system design,through the establishment of detailed procedural regulations,we should improve the pre-court marking and questioning mechanism of jurors,ensure the time and space for jurors to express their opinions independently,and give jurors the right to relief directed by the judge.at the same time,explore the construction of the jury criminal misjudged case responsibility investigation mechanism which is different from the professional judge,improve the juror’s right and responsibility consciousness;Fourth,in terms of job security,build a systematic and practical training system,improve the implementation of the detailed provisions of personal and material security of jurors,and improve the enthusiasm of jurors to perform their duties.