Trial Judge The Wisdom Of Ancient China

In the long ancient feudal autocratic society of China, there were no strict distinction between the administrative power and the judicial power and the local administrative officials were also the local judicial officials. In additional to the administrative affairs, there was an important duty for the local administrative officers to do, which was to deal with all kinds of judicial cases. In the ancient legal system that integrated power of investigation and jurisdiction as a whole, the role of judge had multiple colors. What kind of skills did the judge use to deal with the cases, how many wisdom expressions were there, and how to achieve the wise judgment skills in specific cases, these are worthy of attention.Interrogation without torture refers to the method of settling a lawsuit without using torture. In the ancient adjudicate cases by judges, torture was often considered to be necessary and the official penal code throughout the ages did not prohibit torture, but what officials and people respected was to use experience and wisdom to settle a lawsuit without penalty. The interrogation without torture is the high request of trial skills for the ancient judges and the pursuit of the ancient Chinese judges.The main forms of interrogation without torture include judgment by common sense and experience, finding out the truth of the case with the trial skills of “five listening”, etc., which are the most important parts of the interrogation without torture.To obtain evidence relying on inspection and examination is also an important form of interrogation. In addition, the investigation by using the art of deceitful fraud and by using feudal superstition is also the application in the interrogation without torture.The reasons for the formation of interrogation without torture can be discussed from ideology and culture, power configuration of judges and duty system, evidence,the system of torture, inspection technology, the judicial values, people’s values and other angles. The functions of interrogation without torture are: to improve the level of judge’s case handling; to reduce the use of torture; to protect the right of the defendant;to improve the acceptability of the judgment and to reduce the judicial cost. The limitations of interrogation without torture are mainly shown in the following: it may cause miscarriages of justice; the judgment standard may not be unified; it is difficult toachieve judicial equality and protect the procedural right of criminal suspects.Any culture has the inheritance and the legal culture is no exception. The excellent judicial justice of ancient Chinese judges is still enlightening to the present. It is important and significant to inherit and carry forward law spirit and legal culture left by the ancestors to the modern people, absorb its reasonable points, in combination with the current status of legislation and judicial practice, to build and improve the socialist legal system.The revelations of the judicial enlightenment to the present justice are: the recognition to the confession; the inspiration of the perfection to the Item 54 of the current criminal procedure law; and the revelation to the judge. Today, the use of interrogation without torture in ancient times has been transformed from an old ideal into a common principle of litigation. However, it is still an important subject of the judicial reform on how to prevent and control extorting a confession by torture in the current judicial practice, to change the concept of depending on confession by judicial personnel, to determine the new concept of evidence in criminal proceedings and to improve the interrogation methods by judicial personnel.