Research On Sentencing Suggestion System

The sentencing suggestion system, as a key task of the reform of the sentencingstandards in the years, plays an important role on promoting fair sentencing, strengtheningjudicial supervision, and improving the efficiency of litigation. It has practiced for ten years inour country, arouses widespread concern of the experts and scholars from theoretical circlesand practical circles, and also achieves remarkable results in the pilot areas throughout thecountry. In2010, Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry ofpublic security, the Ministry of state security, and the Ministry of justice issued a number ofregulatory documents individually or jointly, which contains of relevant provisions on thesentencing suggestion system, but either the legal hierarchy of these provisions is too low, orthe operation is not strong, and there is great difference in the practical operations. In2012,Criminal Procedure Law is revised largely, but it absorbs reform achievements on sentencingsuggestion system a little, and it does not explicitly mentioned sentencing suggestion system,so that the operation of the system lacks key legal basis.In this article, by literature research, practical research and comparative studies, theauthor studies the research results of theoretical circles, and interprets the "sentencingsuggestion guidance" and "sentencing procedures opinions" combined with the relevantregulations of new Criminal Procedure Law. Also the author analysis the practice ofsentencing suggestion system in Pilot areas, and compares the theoretical and practicaldevelopment of extraterritorial sentencing suggestion system, in order to construct a detaileddiscussion of issues related to the build of sentencing suggestion system. The author believesthat the construction of our sentencing suggestion system must be based on nationalcircumstances, and starts in the following two levels. Firstly, establish sentencing suggestionsystem in legislation clearly, and build the sentencing suggestion system in the following fouraspects: the principles, the body, content, methods and internal approval procedures. Secondly,improve relevant supporting systems, specifically including: explanation system of the courtnot adopting the sentencing suggestion, reasoning and evaluation system of prosecutors’ sentencing suggestion, lawyers’ defense and legal aid system, protection system ofparticipation of victims in the sentencing process, pretrial evidence discovery system andrelatively uniform standard sentencing system.