An Empirical Study Of The Procuratorate Review And Arrest Hearing System

Arrest is the most severe coercive measure in the criminal procedure law,combining multiple institutional functions of fighting crime,safeguarding human rights and the smooth conduct of criminal litigation activities.According to the provisions of China’s criminal procedure law,the procuratorial authorities have the authority to approve arrests,while the current arrest review by the procuratorate in China is characterized by a written,closed and unilateral approach,with non-transparent review procedures,insufficient protection of suspects’ rights,difficult social risk review,weak interpretation of the law,and a high arrest rate.The Supreme People’s Procuratorate has made it clear in the section on "Improving the mechanism for review and arrest" of the 2018-2022 work plan for procuratorial reform that it will establish a system of review and arrest hearings for cases with significant impact.In September 2020,it issued the "Regulations on Review and Hearing of Cases by People’s Procuratorate",which focuses on creating a systematic hearing system at the institutional level;in October 2021,the Supreme People’s Procuratorate will establish a system of review and arrest hearings for cases with significant impact.In October 2021,the Supreme People’s Procuratorate formally established "fewer arrests,more cautious prosecutions and more cautious detentions" as a criminal justice policy,and promulgated the "People’s Procuratorate Detention Hearing Measures" to further strengthen the standardization of the detention review work of people’s procuratorate.In the context of the current reform of strict control of arrest review,the optimization and improvement of China’s arrest hearing system is of great practical significance,and is expected to give a new institutional vitality.This paper examines and analyzes the system of review and arrest hearings in China’s procuratorates on a case-by-case basis by collecting real data from 200 cases of review and arrest hearings conducted by some people’s procuratorates across the country.The first chapter includes the basic category of hearing system of examination and arrest,outlines the defining characteristics of review and arrest,the background,development,defining characteristics and new changes of the review and arrest hearing system.The second chapter carries out empirical evidence on the scope of application,participants,initiation,degree of publicity,hearing venues and procedural processes of the procuratorate organization hearings after the introduction of the Measures for Custody Hearings in People’s Procuratorate,sort out and demonstrate the effectiveness of system implementation.Chapter 3 analyzes the problems,and causes of the system of review and arrest hearings in the light of empirical data.Chapter 4 conducts a comparative study of foreign laws and summarizes the experiences and insights of pretrial detention in foreign countries.Chapter5 proposes a path and specific measures for improving the system of review and arrest hearings in China,focusing on the core issues of review and arrest,like determination of social dangerousness,further clarification of the scope of application,optimization of supporting facilities and procedures,and protection of rights.The fifth chapter proposes the ways and concrete measures to improve the review and arrest hearing system in China,focusing on the core issues of review and arrest,namely,the determination of social dangerousness,the improvement of the scope of application,the optimization of supporting facilities and procedures,and the protection of rights.