Study Of The Right To Silence

Right to silence, the privilege against self-incrimination, refers to a speciflc right of a suspect or an accused not to answer any official questing, either I. front of police and prosecutors or in court. Broadly speaking, the right of a witness retImsimtg not to testify in a court Is also included in it. It has always been a subject of heated debate in crime procedural law researching field, since Chinese government signed the 揟he international Covenant of avil and Political Rights?in 1998. Through studying some problems about the right to silence, such as origin, development, value and defect of action, and so on, the dissertation concludes that it is necessary to Introduce the right into China. Moreover, it puts forward some preliminary proposals for a Chinese right to silence. This dissertation is divided Into five paris. Part 1 maInly analyses the meaning of the right .The theorical and practical significance of researching on the right to silence is also discussed here. Part 2 mainly discusses the history of the right to silence. Besides giving the Iwo major opinions about its origin, the dissertation emphatically introduces the stipulations and rules of procedural protection relating to the right to silence in Common Law and European Law, as well as in some international law, eipecting some beneflciai reference caum be drawn froni the introduction. Part 3 tries to comment on the flmitation to the right to silence and -3- the maJor issues caused by the limitation in United Kitigdotu and the United States .lt is argLIe(l that (lie restriction to the right to silence iiot only has its historical background, bitt also relevant with its owti defect. lint restriction does not meatt abolishment, it is the result deriving from value balance betweeti crime control and (mat process. Part 4 turns our attention from overseas to China. The Chinese law as it stands now does not include a right to silence. Iii fact; it imposes a duty on the accused to tell the truth. After analyzing the position of Chinese Jaw and its reason, it argues the necessity of illtro(hitcitig the right to silence into China based on weighing the advantages afl(l (hisadvalltages between the right to silence and the duty to tell the truth. l抋rt 5 niaittly gives some twehiutitiary proposals for cotts(rtlc(ing Chutia chiaracleristic legal system of the right to silence. �'racing forward with the development trend of criminal justice system, comprehensive factors and effects should be seriously considered while introducing the right to silence into China .At the end of the fifth part, (lie (hissertatioII gives somtw legislative l)rol)osals, including rules of procedural protections and system eliminating the negative role relating to the right to silence.