Study On Criminal Pretrial Conference System

Criminal Pretrial Conference is a kind of pre-trial preparation meeting held by the judge of his own motive or based on the prosecution and defense applying for, in which participants present aim at resolving problems closely related to the trial but not to the procedure of the trial itself or any substantive issues. During the conference, issues such as exposing evidence, excluding illegal evidence, as well as the participants’applications or objections will be handled in advance. According to the meeting, range of dispute will be contracted and main point will be confirmed. Eventually, it will become a litigation activity with legal force. The real significance of the system construction is to serve the court hearing, making the trial fair, ensuring the trial carried out smoothly and improving the efficiency of the trial. What’s more, the system also restricts the right of prosecution and protects the rights of the accused. The Criminal Pretrial Conference is an important process which is relatively independent and concentrated functional. In the practice of China’s criminal trial, useful exploring experience has been being gained about the criminal pre-trial conference system, which laid a solid foundation for the legislation of the trial conference system. In addition, legislation of civil litigation and judicial practice had a positive effect on the system. The established rules and norms in the pre-trial conference of the Code of Criminal Litigation amended in2012are not specific enough as it didn’t show clearly how the evidence would be displayed, which is the biggest flaw in the pre-trial conference.Compared to Western developed countries, the construction of China’s pre-trial meeting system is still lacking in the mode of operation, effectiveness, evidence display and excluding illegal evidence. In order to further improve the system of pre-trial conference, experts should sum up experience in judicial practice. In addition, clear the legal effect of the system and the main part of the pre-trial session based on the basic principles. Furthermore, a complete trial procedure and specialized agencies must be set, including systems involved in evidence discovery system and excluding illegal evidence.