Research On The Criminal Defendant's Constitutional Right To Compulsory Process For Obtaining Witnesses In His Favor

The compulsory process originated from England in 1600's. Many western countries has written the compulsory process as an important content into Criminal procedure law, even Constitution, to protect the criminal defendant's rights. The reason why the compulsory process can be treated as an constitutional right, and which has been well used in those constitutional countries, mainly because of the deep theoretical foundation itself which are constitutionalism and due process. Regulating the compulsory process of criminal defendant in constitution , not only shows the importance connections between constitution and criminal law, but also embodies the compulsory process itself taking a key effect on criminal law . Being an important part in due process, the compulsory process is meaningful in trial stage, which would give the result of the trial and take the accuser and the defender having an rational "talk". Just because the compulsory process plays a such important role on protecting the defendant's right, and it also can promote the equitable of justice, many international treaties had regulated it as a basic procedure right. These regulations about the compulsory process have great benefit on controlling crimes, protecting human rights and improving lawsuit efficiency. The compulsory process in PRC has a great gap between the accuser and the defendant, which has a great many limitations to the defendant. These limitations make the accuser had a higher situation in trail. Though the situation has changed by the laws modified, and the defendants has got some rights, it still has many problems. To improve the defendant's compulsory process in PRC, we not only have to write it into constitution, but also, and more important, to establish interrelated right relief mechanism. At the same time, we also have to learn the advanced experiences from western countries, design a system of compulsory process in Criminal Procedure Law and use it.