Construction Of Criminal Procedure Evidence Discovery System

Discovery of evidence is to exchange or disclose the evidence materials and information between the accused and the accuser before trial. It is a pre-trial proceeding and mechanism aiming at acquiring the facts of the case for one side from the other so as to get a preparation in judicial system. Although the equality between the accused and the accuser is a basic principle in the criminal procedure law, the accuser has the great state apparatus as its backing, so it is unequal for the accused on its capacity for the evidence collection. In order to balance the two sides, to some extent, it is necessary for both of them to co-operation, meanwhile some special protection shall be granted to the poorer accused so as to guarantee the substantial equality's realization. The system of discovery of evidence has been established in common law jurisprudence for a long history. However, in civil law countries, many have settled this problem by granting the attorney's right of reviewing the files, whose aims are to share the resources with each other during trial, to realize the fairness and to improve the efficiency of judiciary.In china, the criminal procedure law was revised in March of 1996, which borrowed the experiences of adversary system, so that, the criminal procedure of China has absorbed the factors of adversary system based on the traditional exofficio litigation system. However, due to the lack ofsupposed openness of the criminal evidence before trial, the accused and the accuser have no opportunity to exchange those information on evidence before the case's hearing, so that the attorney of the accused has no access to know the evidence of the case fully, especially for the evidences benefiting to the accused. In the author's view, the unfairness and low efficiency of the present criminal trial in China results from the lack of the system of discovery of evidence.In the paper, the author states the significance of the establishing of the system of discovery of evidence in China, which includes to solve the problem of little access to reading files for the attorney etc. In the author's opinion, to establish the system of discovery of evidence may create more favorable conditions for the court to fulfill the tasks set by the criminal procedure law and guarantee the fairness and efficiency of the adjudication.At the end of the paper, the author puts forward his own proposals on the establishing of system of discovery of evidence in China. Before that, the author compare the two different views on the designing of the legislation for such system, one of which is to perfect the current regulations implying the discovery of evidence in the criminal procedure law and the corresponding interpretations made by the Supreme People's Court; the other of which is to breakthrough the present procedural legal system and to reestabish the system of discovery of evidence in thecriminal procedure law . The author agrees with the first view .In his proposals, the author addresses the important principles of the discovery of evidence, such as participating together, opposing equally ,discovery at the same time, subjects limited , the judge' restricted intervene , excluding of non-discovery of evidence , legal responsibility traced , as well as exemption from public interest. As the author emphasized , the system of discovery of evidence shall stipulates the liability, scope, procedure and the results of the law-breaking etc. It is urgent for China to revise the present criminal procedure law so as to establish the system of discovery of evidence.