Study On Criminal Litigation Procedures Concerning Ethnic Minorities

A democratic and constitutional country shall not only protect the rights of the majority but also pay close attention to the rights of the minority. As a judge of an ethnic minority, the author deeply feels that she especially has the responsibility to study the procedures of criminal litigation for the ethnic minorities in legal practices and draw more attention to such‘marginal’studies. First of all, the author points out the importance of study on procedures of criminal litigation for the ethnic minorities, with an account of the historical development of ethnic criminal litigation policies. Then, based on the ethnic criminal litigation policy of‘two prudence and one lenience’(prudent arrest, prudent death penalty and generally lenient ruling), she studies litigation principles on ethnic languages and the characteristics of pre-appearance procedure, trial rules and enforcement procedure of criminal cases involving ethnic minorities. The article structurally consists of six chapters.Chapter One is the introduction, which is a general account of ethnic minorities in China. Quoting a paragraph from the American Laws Magazine, the author first states the importance of study on criminal cases involving ethnic minorities. Beginning with the concept of Chinese ethnic minorities, she gives an account of relevant Chinese policies on nationalities, which are closely related with the rights of the ethnically minor party in legal matters.Chapter Two expounds the relation between nationality criminal policies and the main criminal policies in China. The author first defines nationality criminal policy and compares the history of nationality criminal policies in China and foreign countries, then discusses Chinese modern nationality criminal policies of‘two prudence and one lenience’, which shall be well balanced with the criminal policies of simultaneous leniency and stringency and‘crackdown’. In practice, many question that the nationality criminal policies are incompatible with the principle of‘all nationalities are equal’. Therefore the author deals with the relations between the‘two prudence and one lenience’policy and legal justice that all men are equal in front of laws, hence concludes that the nationality criminal policies are not at all incompatible.Chapter Three is study on litigation principles concerning nationality languages. Starting with problems in litigation principles concerning nationality languages in legal practice, the author researches the constitutional situations on litigation principles concerning nationality languages in the United Nations and other foreign countries, and further analyzes the functional reasons of stipulations on litigation languages in foreign countries and the insufficiency in this field in China. Then she states that the defendant shall be endowed with language defense right, that procedural penalty measures shall be regulated, that bilingual defendants shall be given the right to choose the language, that a mandatory advocate shall be assigned and that defendants of ethnic minorities shall be endowed with special defense rights. Lastly the author comes forward with specific plans on improvement of Chinese litigation principles on nationality languages such as setting the rules of translation in criminal litigation involving ethnic minorities and training for bilingual talents in legal practice.Chapter Four deals with study on pre-trial procedures of criminal cases involving ethnic minorities. The author does a research on pre-trial procedures in four aspects with analysis on specific cases: case registration, investigation, litigation procedures and compulsive measures, listing issues that shall be paid attention to in pre-trial procedures.Chapter Five discusses trial systems for criminal cases involving ethnic minorities. The author analyzes the characteristics and causes of minorities crimes and studies the trial systems in ancient China related with ethnic minorities. She construes with examples the trial systems in China concerning minorities criminal cases and the implementation of such systems and hence suggests improvements in six facets of current trial systems of minorities crimes in China.Chapter Six deals with the enforcement procedures of criminal cases involving ethnic minorities. The author expounds how to correct minority criminals through the enforcement concept of death penalty (instant execution), the enforcement concept of imprisonment and community correction.The thesis is written with maneuvers such as the example analysis method, field investigation method, historical documents analysis method and case analysis method, which can be defined as study on‘marginal subject’with insufficient materials. The author has only limited capability in managing knowledge in multiple fields, hence hopes to carry out deeper research in the future.