An Interpretation Of The Phenomenon Of "Full - Time Jurors"

Established values of the jury system should be the pursuit of judicialdemocracy, judicial openness, justice and judicial oversight,while in practice thesystem has given rise to these " fixed", long-entrenched unemployment jurors ineach court,when the judges needed to ensure the smooth conduct of the proceedings,while the increase for some income to support their family. Learned throughinterviews, surveys like the object of this paper Zhang Li (pseudonym) as retired orunemployed people hanging around in a considerable proportion of the total numberof local jurors, these " fixed"," with the call number to " juror involved inadjudicating cases is far greater than the other jurors have a steady job. Thisphenomenon caught my attention on the reality of people’s jurors work of the people’scourts. These jurors can not only play a supervisory role in a fair value of the program,but also can’t provide a "public awareness" of the trial, the complementary role of"local knowledge". Why are there "full-time jurors" phenomenon and how to resolvethis embarrassing situation, this article will explaining in the following four sections.The first part of the article discusses the origin of the problem. May1,2013, the"Decision on improving the people ’s jury system " has been formally implementedeight years, people’s assessors "anti-authoritarian barriers to justice,"" faithfulrepresentative of public opinion," conflicts between the daily work of the court andvalues of jury system has already stand out. Court simply want to have a numberof clean background to the main task of the jury, and the jury was easy to control anddomination. This not only reduces the pressure on the judge to reduce theirparticipation in the case of non-contractors sit on the transcript of the contractor moretime to focus on their cases, enhance the quality of handling cases; for jurors it iseasy to obtain revenue. Beijing, Chongqing, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Yunnan and otherprovinces’courts have a "full-time jurors" phenomenon. The second part of the article describes a case study based on a full-time juror ’daily lives and jury cases. Summarize the study area’ full-time jurors gender, age,occupation, education, family status, etc.. With the sociology of law survey methods"depth interviews " and " field observations ", I launched a month-long investigationabout W District People’s Court of Chongqing full jurors Zhang Li (female, retiredworkers of state-owned enterprises), start tracking interviews from daily life toparticipate in the trial of cases, and sort out with the narrative approach. Interviewsincluding those engaged in the work of the original intention of the jury, the juryWhy embark on the full-time road, self-awareness and attitudes on the jurors, theirlegal awareness, political awareness and social consciousness changes, dailyinteractions with the surrounding masses, social recognition and evaluation and soon.The third part discusses what the jury duty is,citizenship rights or obligations. Ifthe jury is a civic duty,can jurors who were randomly selected to the obligation delayor refuse to participate? How to monitor jurors to fulfill that obligation? If toparticipate jury is a citizen right, then whether all citizens of the People’s Republic ofChina who have the basic behavior ability can participate it or not? Is jury duty"privilege"of the elite? Through the introduction of Germany, Japan, Russia and theUnited Kingdom, the United States jurors representation, a conclusion is drawed thatthe jury duty is the basic right of citizens, but also the basic obligation of citizens.Since jury duty is equal right of every citizen who should enjoy equality commitmentsand obligations, then there should not set a high threshold and working conditions,as long as they have the basic cognitive ability and intelligence work intensitycorresponding competent body citizenship status, there is the opportunity to step intothe sacred and solemn court and sit on the judgment seat.The fourth part of the article discusses the lack of modern civic political culturemay be the cause of the decline of civic engagement spirit of justice, and activelyseek the road to resolve. Citizen participation in public affairs like justice is animportant indicator to measure a democratic and rule of law nation’ level. Robert.Dahl regarded the "effective participation" as the primary indicator of the democratic process. Had been defined as the true nature of free and democratic political,participation of citizens now seems to be replaced by an atmosphere of personalpursuit of economic interests. This will undoubtedly lead to a "deep historical processof depoliticization, civic engagement and social governance is missing, increasinglynarrow public discourse, as well as the political social passage of a very ancientGreeks, Rousseau, Paine and Jefferson and others value. This kind of " politicaldecline simply means falter towards a more regressive, anti-democratic order, tend tosuspect the true foundation of civic life." The decline of civic engagement spirit, a"political end" and the crisis in the public sphere also inevitable. Therefore, weshould improve the ability of citizens to participate in justice by fostering civicliteracy; Nurture civil society and build institutionalized channels for citizenparticipation in justice; boost spirit of civic participation in justice, to protect thehealthy development of the people’s jury system.