China Pre-trial Detention Reform Study

The pretrial custody system is the important component in the criminal justice system, which is the most unique and most striking focus as far as the legalization, democratization and modernization are concerned related to criminal procedure governing pretrial of the contemporary criminal procedure governing pretrial custody system as the reference, and the pretrial custody system as the reference, and the pretrial custody system of law-ruled foreign countries as the mirror, through research of the theoretical foundation and basic principle establishing custody system, makes a legislative analysis and concrete evidential inspection governing China's current custody system, finds out the existing gap and its causes, for the purpose of trying to reestablish the pretrial custody system which not only accords with China's objective reality but also conforms to universal international axion. This paper consists of four chapters.Chapter One: Summary of pretrial custody system. This chapter carries out a comparative research on the definition, nature and purpose of custody. Concerning the definition of China's custody, there are three different opinions in academic circle .The first is;" Custody is a provisional coercive measure for those suspected criminals deprived of personal freedom and put in confinement before court trial"; the second is "pretrial custody refers to the situation to deprive the suspected criminals, the defendants of the personal freedom before the court renders effective judgments "; the third is, "pretrial custody is a kind of coercive mode to put the lawfully arrested or the detained into custody in the detention center or other designated places along with restricting their personal freedom". The author agrees to the above first opinion. As for the nature and purpose governing pretrial custody, there exists a comparatively distinct indifference between Civil law countries and Anglo-American law countries. In Anglo-American law countries pretrial custody does not belong to coercive measure, it is only the measure to guarantee defendants to appear in court or prevent the suspected criminals from recommitting crime. However in Civil law countries, pretrial custody belongs to one of the coercive measures. In China, pretrial custody does not belong to coercive measure.