| It has always been a major endeavor for the legal circle in China to actively promote judicial reform, enhance efficiency, and strive for legal fairness. The appearance of simplified court procedures for common cases where defendants willingly admit their crimes, a major progress in China's judicial reform, meets not only the actual needs of the present judicial practices in China but also the general international tendency of criminal policy reform and legislation and therefore, has vital theoretical significances and practical values.Since its trial application, the use of simplified procedures in common criminal cases has received both warm welcome and doubting criticism from the theoretical and practical circle. The author believes that the actual practice of simplified court procedures is generally in accordance with the original intention of reducing court time and has to certain extent relieved the tension between the scarcity of court resources and the heaviness of work load. It, therefore, has practical significance for reducing litigant costs, improving court efficiency, optimizing legal resources, and ensuring defendants receive timely and fair criminal judgment within the minimal time span. However, issues and obstacles do exist in actual practices, such as the often encountered difficulty in initiating such a simplified process, the absence of real contents, the lack of distinct effects, and infraction of defendants'rights, etc, all of which need to be addressed before the advantage of the practice can be fully released. The author, in an intention to combine theory and practice, has studied the actual application of simplified court procedures in common criminal cases in his region and through comprehensive deliberation and reflection, analyzed the reasons behind the failure of such procedures to play their due function. Issues have been raised and discussed and solutions proposed, in the hope to promote constructive exploration and further improvement in this area. |
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