On Criminal Appeal

Criminal appeal refers to that criminal concerned party refuses to accept the decision made during criminal action by judicial authority and judgment and arbitration having taken effect and then submit a request for re-handling to judicial authority. In 1996, Criminal law has made some modification and replenishment to relevant content of criminal appeal, but there still exists quite a few problems regarding it. At present, law circles lack systematic research on criminal appeal, and they could not reach a consensus on partial discussion, neither. According to the data mastered by the author, law circles'research on criminal appeal mainly focuses on the one about effective judgment by the court, for the criminal appeal without being brought into the court, especially for criminal appeal detected added by the Criminal law modified in 1996, nobody will show any interest. Immaturity on theory will naturally cause short supply on concrete system construction and judicial procedure will not be uniform. Deficiency on theory, defect on system is largely a cause of problems about hard criminal appeal, disusing appeal and confusion on the order of appeal. After detecting the problem, what is urgent to be done is to solve the problem. I am to make an exploration on criminal appeal which is easy to understand by this article.The first chapter is the general overview on criminal appeal. It will make an explanation to the concept, nature of criminal appeal. For the concept of criminal appeal, the author thinks that it refers to the behavior that criminal concerned party refuses to accept the decision made during criminal action by judicial authority and judgment and arbitration having taken effect and then submit a request for re-handling to judicial authority. The nature of criminal appeal belongs to criminal lawsuit action from action point of view and criminal lawsuit right from right point of view. Features of criminal appeal will be shown in the following: 1, Its subject is exclusive; 2, The object is special; 3, It has special time limit; 4, The action is connective; 5, It has strict procedure.This second chapter is the analysis of jurisprudence. It has explained theoretical base of criminal appeal by value and function analysis on criminal appeal, which will provide theoretical base for establishing criminal appeal system again in future. For criminal appeal, if the procedure itself complies with the value and concept of regarding the entity and procedure as the same, its reasonability and fairness will be verified without saying. From this point of view, the concrete system layout should pay attention to mastering the connection between entity fairness and procedure fairness. In our Criminal law, there is no stipulation that once a case has been confirmed, it will not be accepted and heard again or stipulation that will accept double risks forbidden, while it has stipulated criminal appeal system. As an exemption, if it is not limited in a rigid way or if unlimited one is allowed, it will undoubted repudiate the principles of not accept and hear again and double risks forbidden; if it is limited excessively, principles of not accept and hear again and double risks forbidden will be too absolute. Protecting appellant's benefit excessively is also not a good law. As the principles of not accept and hear again and double risks forbidden have become a common rule all through the world, we should make display to the principle in relevant law procedure and stipulate the exemption in a reasonable and scientific way. Functions of criminal appeal are mainly shown in the following several aspects: one is to protect human rights. Criminal appeal system reform in our country should self-question traditional appeal function. Punishing crime should not be taken as the very first task and finding the truth of the case, pursuing entity truth also should not be taken as the only goal in the procedure of criminal appeal, while we should regard punishing crime and protecting human rights as the same importance and make the functions of criminal appeal be exerted in the best way. The second function is to maintain public credibility of judicial authority. The third function is to maintain stability of the law.The third chapter is the thinking on how to improve system of criminal appeal. It has made pertinent analysis to the problems existed in the criminal appeal system and provided its own suggestions on how to improve criminal appeal system in our country. Seeing from existing problems, one is on investigation appeal: important aspects as relevant domination, reason and appeal handling procedure are all under blank condition, which could not be operated; the second is on appeal without making a lawsuit: although appeal subject, period and domination authority have been stipulated, concrete reasons and relevant procedure are still deficient, the operation of which is not strong; the third is on effective judgment and arbitration appeal: although appeal subject, domination and reason have been referred, there is still no stipulations on handling procedure. Therefore, it is still not standard. Besides, existing stipulations as court and procuratorate all have dominant authority on effective judgment, arbitration appeal, while concrete work division between them and rank domination inside their own system have not been clearly divided. Relevant four appeal reasons will not be distributed. For the above problems, the author thinks that the following necessary procedures should be improved or re-structured if criminal appeal legislate is to be improved, appeal is to be fitted into lawsuit and appeal system in true meaning is to be established: one is that appeal subject should be the party concerned, legal agent and its close relative. Appeal by the subject should have an order, while appeal at the same time is forbidden. Concerned party, its legal agent and close relative should be allowed to entrust its lawyer to execute appeal on behalf of them; the second is appeal reason. The three kinds of appeals should have their own reasons with entity reason and procedure reason both considered; the third is about appeal time period. Inspection appeal could refer to the time limit of appeal without lawsuit. Effective judgment and arbitration appeal should be divided into the one whether it is beneficial to the accused or not; the fourth is appeal domination. The author suggests that court trial system with judicial relief should be established. That is inspection appeal and the one without lawsuit should be dominated by the court with the same rank. Once the appellant proposes, the court should not decline and then trial procedure with judicial relief will be started gonging along according to simplified procedure and the judgment will be made within some time limit. Once the judgment is made, the appellant should not make another appeal for the same reason. For effective judgment, its appeal will be dominated by the procuratorate of upper rank, which will go along according the procedure of trial and supervision.