Research On The Protection Of The Defendant’s Rights In The Trial By Default

In the context of the deepening anti-corruption campaign,China revised the Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China in 2018,creating a system of trial by default.The establishment of the trial by default system has provided legal support for punishing corrupt individuals who have absconded overseas,but there are still some issues that need to be improved,including the protection and relief of the rights of the defendant,such as the lack of practicality of the delivery of judicial documents,and the unclear standards of the defendant’s knowledge of judicial documents,which has made it difficult to start the trial by default.Also defense lawyers intervene too late in the case,and legal aid lawyers may have insufficient experience,resulting in difficulties for defendants to obtain effective assistance from lawyers.With the short exercise period of the right of appeal,the defendant may not be able to exercise his right in a timely manner.In addition,without the right of appeal by close relatives,there may be a risk of abuse of rights.Meanwhile,the provisions on the right of objection are not detailed enough,resulting in a lack of restrictions on the exercise of the defendant’s rights.There are currently disputes about what procedures should be applied for a retrial,and whether the court can increase the punishment.In the face of the above issues,this article explores how to ensure and remedy the defendant’s litigation rights while allowing the trial by default to play a greater role in anti-corruption work by reviewing the experience of trial by default outside China and combining with China’s theoretical and practical experience.Specifically,it is necessary to optimize the safeguard measures for the right to know,clarify the standards for the defendant to know,innovate the service of process,and incorporate the delivery of service by publication into the system;improve the defense system,refine legal aid regulations,improve the quality of legal aid,and let the legal aid system truly play a role;extend the appeal period for overseas defendants,limit the purpose of appeals by close relatives,and make up for the lack of legislative loopholes in the object of appeal;standardize the exercise of the right of objection to prevent its abuse,and clarify the procedures and principles applicable to the retrial.