Study On The Historical Evolution And Development Trend Of Jury System In China

Jury system is the main pattern of lay participation and the embodiment of judicial democratization. Jury system has a long history,a Solid political foundation and profound legal cultural tradition abroad. It being introduced into China was a mere 100 years. Owing to historical and cultural environments and the factors in the system itself, jury system developed slowly and difficultly.In the west, ancient Greece is the birthplace of early jury system. After Solon's reformation in the sixth century BC, Athens is established the jury system. During Roman republic era, Roman executed collective trial model. And it also established the jury system similar to ancient Greece. But in the Roman Empire A.D. 352 years, it was abolished.The jury system of modern significance originated in Britain. After the bourgeois revolution, jury system in common law countries approached maturity. Meanwhile, under the theoretical guidance of bourgeois enlightenment thinkers the civil law countries executed comprehensive reform of judicial system. Jury system also appeared in the civil law countries, and gradually developed in these countries. But jury system of civil law countries is different from jury system of Anglo-American law countries. Strictly speaking, it is"assessor system".In our thousands of years of slavery society and feudal society history does not exist real jury system. Jury system was introduced in during the late Qing dynasty and developed difficulty after the Revolution of 1911, then developed quickly in people's justice after the 1930s.People assessor system established in early years of the new nation and after a period of decline, it drew attention again in recent years. On may 1, 2005, China implemented the"Decision on Perfection of People Assessor System",then people assessor system seems to meet a new spring.However, China's current people assessor system exposes many drawbacks in its implementation process. Mainly displays in: applicable scope of people's assessors system is not clear, the degree requirements of people's assessors is too high, the way to produce People's assessors is administrative, people assessor accounted for a collegial panel proportion is small, The people assessor's decision is subject to the judicial committee, the term of service of people assessor is too long, the assessment system of people assessor is professional, and the management system of people assessor is not perfect, etc.In view of the above problems, scholars have "abolish theory" and "reconfiguration theory" two opposing points of view. The author thinks that appearing this argument is very normal and other countries have a similar controversy. But for each country under the rule of law, jury system although has some limitations,its legitimacy is beyond doubt. The value concept of jury system applies equally to our country. Although faces many difficulties, its establishment and reform has unique and important meaning to contemporary China. Therefore, we should not to abolish it, and should perfect it, so as to give full play to the value of the jury system.The author suggests that to reconstruct the jury system in our country, we should perfect the legislation system of the jury system, including establishment of the constitutional status of the jury system and formation of the special law of the jury system. We should perfect the content of the current jury system, including clearing the applicable scope of the people assessor system, reclassifying people assessor qualifications, canceling fixed tenure of people assessor, improving the way to produce people assessor, expanding the proportion of people's assessors in collegial panel, relaxing the reason of application for people assessor withdrawal, improving the management system of people assessor, desalting preference of expert jurors. Also we should improve relevant rules and principles of procedure, including establishing the system rules of evidence, strengthening the principle of direct verbal trial, determining concentrating hearing principle, etc.This paper traces the development process of jury system, illuminates under different social form the survival and development situation of jury system, shows the necessity of existence of jury system in contemporary China. Although our current people assessor system exists some problems and faces some difficulties, we should continue to uphold and improve people assessor system in China and promote our democratic legal process.