Criminal Super System

When the code of criminal procedure was revised in 1996, the Chinese legislature made it clear in the article 87 that the People's Procuratorate has the right to supervise the case filing process of the investigation organs. This was indeed a giant step forward for China's legislation as the People's Procuratorate acquired a clear legal basis for the supervision of investigation. Since the implementation of the new code, prosecutors of all levels have actively performed their statutory duties as supervisors of criminal investigation and have corrected a number of cases which had problems like intentional failing to file or prosecute, replacing imprisonment with penalties and so forth. In the mean time, they have also explored and accumulated a series of methods and experiences while establishing the working specification of supervision on investigation.However, although the frame of supervision of criminal case filing has already been established, the supervision itself often encounters a quantity of actual problems which needs urgent analysis, research and resolution. For instance, the object under supervision is usually incomplete, the information source is sometimes obstructed and the supervision measures are far from adequate. Therefore, the supervision is neither effective nor timely due to the many flaws of the monitoring system, not to mention the realization of justice and the harmony of society.This article divides the problems of the supervision system of criminal case filing into three categories, the problem of the inadequate laws and regulations, the problem of the imperfect mechanism and the problem of personnel quality; meanwhile, a specific analysis was also made for these problems. Moreover, it proposes several guidelines for the improvement of the supervision, and is elaborated from the aspects of expanding the supervision radius and objects, monitoring the source of information, institution and subjects. In the end, the article emphasizes the enhancement of operability, efficiency and rigidity of the supervision of the criminal case filing in judicial practice, thus providing some references for the revision of the code of criminal procedure or the draft of separate regulations.