Research On The Death Cause Investigation System

In China’s judicial practice,cases involving death or public opinion resulting from family members questioning the cause of death mostly attract widespread public attention.The disappearance and death of 15-year-old Hu Xinyu in Jiangxi,the fall of a student from Chengdu 49 Middle School,and the drowning of Li Xincao all show that the credibility of the coroner’s conclusions made by the authorities in China under the existing investigation model is highly susceptible to questioning.The public security authorities occupy an absolutely dominant position in China’s current coroner’s investigation procedures,and the lack of independence of the subject,the closed process,the single means of investigation,and the lack of avenues of redress have together led to controversial coroner ’s findings in cases of unnatural deaths in China.In the handling of unnatural deaths of natural persons,China does not currently have an independent,systematic system of coroner’s inquest system.The existing mode of coroner’s inquest does not well reflect judicial independence and procedural fairness,and is contratry to the concept of the rule of law to protect the basic rights and interests of citizens.As a result,the cause of death of the deceased is easily left unresolved,leaving the families of the deceased unsettled and the members of society in fear of not knowing where they will end up.This is not only a neglect of the right to life of the deceased,but also difficult to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the deceased’s family and stakeholders,and more seriously may undermine the effectiveness of criminal prosecution,impact on judicial authority and cause social unrest.Therefore,the existing coroner’s inquest procedure in China is in urgent need of innovation.By analysing 12 typical coroner’s dispute cases,we summarise the problems of the coroner’s inquest procedure in China and reflect on them.The focus is on the English coroner’s system,drawing on the localised coroner’s systems implemented in the United States,Australia and Hong Kong,China,as the English coroner’s system spreads abroad.Explore the design of a coroner’s system in China.Specific institutional improvements include the establishment of a coroner’s inquest committee under the prosecution system,the introduction of a system for reporting deaths,the use of diverse investigative techniques,the setting up of a hearing procedure,and the adoption of a parallel supervision model between the higher coroner’s inquest committee and the prosecution,so that the determination of the coroner’s conclusion in China follows statutory procedures,increases citizen participation,protects the basic rights of citizens from the perspective of institutional construction,and enhances judicial credibility.