Study On Obstacle And Its Solution To Application Of Privilege Of Silence In Investigation Stage In China

Criminal proceedings in modern countries under the rule of law attach much importance to the justice and civilization in judicial practice. They emphasize much on respecting and protecting suspects'human dignity and will of freedom in investigation stage. The privilege of silence is an important embodiment of modern philosophy of rule of law. It has been validated as a basic human right in International Human Rights Law, and it is also one of the important contents in presumption of innocence. With the development of democratization and schematization of lawsuit, especially since more than last 10 years after Chinese government signed International Covenant of Civil Rights and Political Rights, the privilege of silence has become one of the heated issues in law research in China. To validate the system of privilege of silence is both the world's trend and the requirement of the development of human civilization. Since it is most probably to infringe suspects'human rights in investigation stage, the application of privilege of silence in this stage has extraordinary positive meanings.Although the application of privilege of silence in this stage has such important significance, analyzing from traditional criminal proceedings cultures, law systems, current national situations, it faces with many obstacles, which come from various aspects: traditional criminal proceedings cultures, law systems and inherent deficiency from some investigation organizations themselves etc.This paper brings forward the idea of drawing on the successful experiences from other countries to overcome the obstacles. First, we should make laws to identify the limits of application of silence privilege, that is, the privilege is only applied to words evidence, only to criminal facts, and at the same time, the exception of its application in investigation stage should be emphasized.Second, to ensure the application of silence privilege by setting up some coordinated systems and rules such as presumption of innocence rules, giving suspects the rights of not forced to self-incrimination, non-illegal words evidence rules and free confession rules, perfecting witness appear in court system, limited plea bargaining system, and introducing practicing free evaluation of the evidence system.Last, mind should be changed to understand the importance of the justice of practice and the value of silence privilege so as to realize the high unity of protecting human rights and punishing crimes, and to realize the unceasing development of harmonious society during the process.