On The Establishment Of The Right To Silence In China' Legal System

The Right to Silence is the criminal suspects and defendants that are entitled to remain silent or refuses to answer the examination of judicial officers (including police, prosecutors and judges) face to face, rather than the right against self-incrimination in criminal proceedings. The right to silence included two interpretations which are broad and narrow sense; we mainly discuss the narrow sense of the right to remain silent in this article. The right to silence which is an important symbol of procedural justice and the judiciary has become an internationally recognized system of criminal justice system, but we haven't established the Right to Silence in our law system. In my opinion, the Right to Silence is valuable in the protection of human rights and upholds justice and it is our inevitable choice to fulfill obligations under international law. It is necessary to establish Right to Silence and the appropriate supporting legal system in China.The first part of this paper describes the meaning and development process of the right to silence, and has its legitimacy into the discussion. The second part describes the different opinions of scholars for the Right to Silence, and the necessity and feasibility about the establishment of the Right to Silence in China. The third part discusses the reference of Right to Silence for broad and the requirements to China; we can select the essence and goes its dregs. The fourth part is the focus of this article, the main argument of the author focus on how we should establish the right to silence system suitable for China. In the first place, we should remove the "truthfully answer" requirement of "Criminal Procedure" Article 93 in the legislation, and we should also modify the "Interrogation" requirement of the "Criminal Procedure" Article 139 and prosecutors during the court hearing "interrogation" the defendant's procedures. In the second place, there are several exceptions of the right to silence should be listed, such as public safety exception, endangering national security exception, Triad crimes exception, the Right to Silence should be established to a certain extent in our law system. In the third place, the author believes that we should improve the lawyers'defense system, establish rules and illegal evidence exclusion rule confession, witness perfect system, the establish mechanisms for encouraging active statements in the corresponding matching system to protect the Right to Silence System can be effectively implemented and protect the human rights to the best in China.