Study On Local Criminal Procedure In Qing Dynasty

In year 1902, the monarch of Qing Dynasty accepted the reform advice which was presented by Shikai Yuan, governor-general of Independent Province, and tried to carry out a judicial reform. In the course of reform, the Trial Courts Regulation(try out) which was made by Department of Justice in 1907 didn't stipulate local trial courts'jurisdiction, then the law-drafting bureau provided Judicature Act in 1910.But, the result of judicial reform turned out to be 'the old system of trial grade, trial limitation, gaol and delivery is not operated by law courts but by local government…some kinds of judicial work including annual reports, judgment discussion, prosecutor involving in criminal actions, and prosecutor review in homicide cases, are in charged by law courts, not by local government.'That is to say, the local criminal procedure was still the same after the judicial reform. Then, what kind of procedure was used during the court trial in local level in Qing Dynasty? What are the characteristics of local criminal procedure in Qing Dynasty? And what is its spirit? In order to resolve these questions, the writer studies on the achievements of former scholars, reading laws and documents of Qing Dynasty including the Penal Code of Qing Dynasty, and studies on preserving law reports and sources left by private secretaries of law, tries to make clear of the local criminal procedure, and analyses its characteristics and spirit. This thesis includes three parts of introduction, main text and conclusion. The main text is divided into four chapters. The introduction is on the access and methods of study of this thesis. Chapter One to Three studies on the local criminal procedure on the basis of laws and documents of Qing Dynasty, introduces local criminal cases in detail including putting on file, investigation, trial, verdict, review and enforcement. During the study on procedure, the writer uses sociological analyzing methods to analyze file requests of local criminal actions and a series of illegal acts of policemen, the analyses the enforcement of local judgments in Qing Dynasty and remedies thereof, concludes that local criminal procedure in Qing Dynasty was also supplemented by the retaliatory thoughts. Chapter Four is mainly on the characteristics and spirits which are represented by local criminal procedure. The writer holds that the local magistrates'golden principle during criminal actions was to put cases into 'believed cases'in order to deal with reviews of higher authorities, on theother hand, they wouldn't take parties'procedure rights and the substantial rights behind into account. The conclusive part makes a brief conclusion on the thesis and put further analysis on its deficiency.