A Preliminary Study On Appropriate Adult Participation System

Since the appropriate adult participation system is an important system to protect the legitimate interest of minor offenders in criminal judicature. It is universal in western countries, such as the UK, Australia, the USA, Austria, Japan and Hong Kong. And there is a similar system in China. For instance, there is only the system of legal representatives presence in Criminal Procedural Law amended in1996. Decision on Amendment of Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China was passed at the5th Session of the11th National People’s Congress on Mar.14,2012and officially went into effect on Jan.1,2013. When Criminal Procedure Law was revised again, a special procedure for criminal case lawsuit involving minor offenders was added, which is one of the highlights of the amendment. The original legal representative presence system has been revised greatly in Article270, which formally settles the appropriate adult participation system. However, the current system still has some shortcomings, which has some difference from a proper one. This paper aims to promote the establishment and improvement of the system in China so that the final goal of protecting human rights of minor offenders will be reached by comparing the relevant mature foreign institutional norms, analyzing their advantages and disadvantages and absorbing the essence.This paper is divided into four parts excluding introduction and conclusion:Part I is about the general introduction of "appropriate adult participation system". It mainly covers the origin, connotation and theoretical foundation, function of the systems, which aims to reach a preliminary reasonable cognition. Part II is about foreign investigation and comparison of appropriate adult participation system. Since there is commonness between the same legal system, Anglo-American Legal System and Continental Legal System are expounded separately, including the relevant legislation and legal practice of the UK, Australia, the UK, Hong Kong, Austria, Japan, Russia and Germany. On this basis, the respective regulations of foreign countries and areas are compared and analyzed, showing the superiority of the countries with Anglo-American Legal System, especially the UK.Part III is about the current situation of the implementation of China’s appropriate adult participation system and the analysis, mainly including legislative progress and three models in system practice theoretically and practically. This systematically shows the system’s development in China. Additionally, the improvement and improvement space of legislation and practice will be expounded and explained in this part so as to demonstrate of the necessity of improving the system.Part IV is about the improvement of several ideas on China’s appropriate adult participation system, including the improvement of professional appropriate adult group, making clear of selection requirements, rights and obligations of appropriate adults,the establishment of a special adult administration institute,granting appropriate adult social surveys and community correction functions, and the procedures of. appropriate adult participation etc.