Predicament Of Criminal Reconciliation System In China And Its Solution

As a method of dispute solution, criminal reconciliation is a new legal systemwhich was introduced into criminal procedural law in2012. It applies a new route forcriminal justice reform and incorporates between criminal law and criminalprocedural law in China. Criminal reconciliation is an important international systemof justice around the world and has developed for a long time. It is considered as thereflection of restorative justice in criminal cases which are resolved as a breedingmode in western countries. Criminal reconciliation has been widely developed andhas a good reputation between parties to the conflict. Criminal reconciliation also hasa long history and natural market in China. Our Chinese people have always beenfriendly and are not used to be enemy with other people especially among rural area.According to current legislation in China, the scope of application of criminalreconciliation is strictly limited to a small extension. Some people think that it isreasonable in recently years due to our social reality. Many people insist on theopinion that the criminals should be strictly punished without any compromise. Insome cases, the object of crime is public interest. In these cases, the number of thevictim is limited and certain. These people are not empowered to give up substantiveright of disposition because public interest is pointed to unlimited and uncertainnumber of citizen. Some scholar hold the opinion that whether a case is suitable forcriminal reconciliation depends on the statutory sentence he is likely to get. Theessence of the opinion is that criminal reconciliation is only suitable for minorcriminal cases. In serious criminal cases, the criminal is so wicked and his personal dangerousness is so high that the use of criminal reconciliation is likely to let go ofcrime.Criminal reconciliation should run through all the criminal cases with diversediscretion by judicial authority in author’s opinion whether in minor or serious cases.Though civil suit collateral to criminal proceeding has been established long time agoin China, the system is not perfect at all. Many victim can not obtain what theydeserve through the process, and live a hard and miserable life. The victim reliefsystem has not been established in China and the victim has no alternative to anymaterial and spiritual compensation. Criminal reconciliation opens a new door thatvictim can get what they deserve by themselves through negotiation with criminalsexamined by judicial authority. As a reward, the criminals are likely to get a minorpunishment due to reconciliation by discretion of certain factors.