On Judicial Response To Different Kinds Of Public Opinion

The relationship between justice and public opinion is an old and new topic,which has been satisfactorily resolved neither in the practice level nor at the academic level.There have been a lot of research,but they tend to fall into two extremes:one is empty of “big words” law science—emphasize theory and belittle investigation,emphasize value and belittle system,emphasize ideal and belittle reality.the other is trivialness of case analysis—rigidly adhere to describe the plot and freely sublimate theory without logic.The crux of the problem lies in our view on public opinion is too rough,especially the absence of definite explaination and academical classification.In fact,public opinion has three levels of meaning: narrow meaning refers to the will of the people,medium meaning refers to the will of the public,broad meaning refers to the opinions of some people.In the context of justice,public opinion should be broad meaning which can be defined as " some people's opinion on a judicial issue(mainly cases)who has no direct interest ".According to the object,content,performance and other comprehensive standards,public opinion can be classified into direct public opinion and indirect public opinion.Direct public opinion possess these characteristics,such as direct expression to the judicial organs,only for the case,centralized and clear.Indirect public opinion possess these characteristics,such as indirect expression to the judicial organs,not only for the case,decentrality and ambiguity.The most typital direct public opinion is Joint letter in criminal case,and the most typital indirect public opinion is web review in public case,both of which can be studied in practice.Through the statistics and analysis of the joint letter in ten criminal cases,we can find some characteristics of the direct public opinion represented by the joint letter: Most of the crimes are natural crimes,and most of them are personal rights;Most of the defendants are farmers,and belong to the grassroots;Most of the signers and the parties are in the same small acquaintance society,and it has a "acquaintance";Joint letter is not a pure emotional catharsis,but has evidence attributes and logical reason to some extent;The response attitude to joint letter and the corresponding case show a positive correlation to a large extent;The authenticity of the joint letter is high,most signers know the case and express the true intention of the case.Through the statistics and analysis of the ten public cases,we can find some characteristics of the indirect public opinion represented by the web review: The elements of web reviews often include post,comment,public opinion;The cause of the web review is accidental and inevitable;The orientation of web review is passive and active;The impact of web review is positive and negative;The main defects of web reviews are rational,lack of knowledge and information;The content of web review is a panoramic description and a comprehensive review;The supervision of network public opinion is usually transmitted through network,public opinion and power to judge finally.Through the front empirical study,we can find that the relationship between judicature and public opinion has two sides: first,the positive value,that is to say,what is the value of public opinion as for justice;second,the negative conflict,that is to say,what are the reasons for the conflict between public opinion and justice.As for justice,whether it is direct public opinion,or indirect public opinion,there is positive value and negative conflict.However,in order to discuss more deeply and targeted,while in consideration of front classification of public opinion,we elaborate the relationship respectively: as far as direct public opinion is concerned,we mainly discuss the positive value;as far as indirect public opinion is concerned,we mainly discuss the negative conflict.As for the positive value of direct public opinion,we can argue from the following aspects,sush as resolution of the rule of law paradox,inheritance of history and culture,admission of the law,limited dispersion of the case,reference of comparative law,and so on.As for the negative conflict of indirect public opinion,we can sum up the following factors,sush as difference between professional thinking and public thinking,cases which often become the negative mood of the people vent,divergence between public opinion and law meaning,lack of official information and flood of people's imagination,lack of norms of justice and media relations,difference between legal stability and public opinion mobility,and so on.The interaction between justice and public opinion can be supported by some basis judicial idea,including but not limited to responsive justice,negotiated justice,people's view of justice and the origin of law.Overall,we should adhere to flexible,limited,social judicial view,observe following principles which are prudent respect,limited positive,orderly response and strategic interaction,respect the public's right to know,to participate,to express and to supervise,improve the public opinion of collection,identification,guidance,protection,absorption,feedback and other working mechanisms to strengthen docking with the public opinion.Especially for the characteristics of direct public opinion and indirect public opinion,we should build up different response path.As for direct public opinion,we should build a set of mechanism,operational response model which is mainly in the construction of micro level and focus on positive response.From the vertical point of view,we need to divide the judicial response into several stages,such as collection,screening,consideration and feedback;From the horizontal point of view,it is necessary to refine the principles,forms,tasks and processes at each stage.As for indirect public opinion,we should construct a set of systematic strategy which is mainly in the construction of meso level and focus on dynamic response.Internally,it is necessary to construct scientific system to promote active judgment and shorten distance between law and public opinion.Externally,it is necessary to actively participate in the construction of public opinion to dispel the impact of public opinion on the law.