Analysis On The Origin Of People’s Jury System

The people’s jury system serves as a judicial system in which the national judicial organs absorb the citizens to participate in trials, also forms an important part and represents a special feature of the modern national judicial system. In China, the jury system was the “import” from the west during law revision period in late Qing Dynasty. Current people’s jury system in China, taking Soviet model as a blueprint, continuously highlighted the Chinese characteristics in the course of development and evolution and has gradually set up the people’s jury system with Chinese characteristics. This paper gives an initial presentation on the origin and development of the jury system in China from a historical perspective, explores some basic rules and trends of the jury system in the development of China’s history, and provides reference and lessons to the integration and the development of people’s jury system. The paper consists of four parts.The first part outlines the transplanted jury system in the late Qing Dynasty, which mainly introduces three aspects including social background of the jury system introduction, information related to jury legislation in the late Qing Dynasty, as well as the frustration of the jury system implementation. Due to the serious conflict between the national power structure plus the feudal culture and the western judicial system, the jury system was hard to grow and adapted with the highly centralized feudal dynasty, therefore, the test of jury legislation in the late Qing finally failed.The second part describes the attempt of the jury system in the period of Republican. Due to the serious war situation and political chaos, a number of law and regulations of the jury system announced by the Nationalist Government had not been implemented, the trial of the jury system had little effect, yet some new trends appeared. The jury legislation had begun the transformation from the jury system into the assessor system, with strong political attributes, and had an important impact on the later jury system.The third part presents the people’s jury system in the revolutionary base period. The development of people’s jury system in this period could be categorized into three stages, including the period of the Agrarian Revolution, the period of anti-Japanese War and the period of the Liberation War. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, the people’s jury system was initiated in the Agrarian Revolution period. In the Anti-Japanese War period, in order to consolidate the Anti-Japanese United Front and strive for the support of people, the people’s jury system and legislation became more improved, the judicial democracy function had been given a full play to. During the war of Liberation, in order to tie in with the land reformation, and carry on the class warfare, the people’s jury system had demonstrated further new features with the new style. Through the constant practice and exploration, the embryonic form of people’s jury system with Chinese characteristics had been gradually formed, which exhibited a significant impact on the law tradition after the founding of the new China.The fourth part states the people’s jury after the establishment of People’s Republic of China. This part makes a systematic exposition on the development of the jury system of our country after the establishment of the P.R.C. The development of the jury system in this period is divided into three steps: the founding and all-round development of people’s jury system in the initial period of China, the recovery of people’s jury system after the “Cultural Revolution”, and the new development of the jury system in the late 90’s of the twentieth century. In this period, China’s jury system experienced ups and downs. Confronting numerous difficulties in the judicial practice, the social effect was poor, even once gave rise to the discussion of “the struggle of the jury system abolition”. However, along with acceleration of modernization legislation process, the jury system regained the attention with the rise of its legal status, became an indispensable part of the legislation and also an important segment of China’s judicial reformation.Finally, the development of people’s jury system is not smooth in China. There was the first transplantation of laws in the late Qing Dynasty. Then the system was tried many times d uring the period of the Republic of China. However, they all ended in failure. During the peri od of the revolutionary bases, the people’s jury system was preliminary established and develo ped. Nevertheless, it was also laid aside several times. After the founding of the People’s Repu blic of China, people’s jury system is experienced tortuous journey via “prosperity- decline-again flourishing”. It did not usher in a new development until entering twenty-first Century. I n the final analysis, the development of the jury system is affected by the concrete national co nditions of our country and the traditional legal culture, such as serious "official standard" con ception and weak consciousness of holders of rights. In addition, that the balance of the intern al and external value for the jury system could be reasonable grasped also has a great influenc e on its development.In China, establishing and completing the jury system, is an important step in promoting judicial system reformation in the context of the comprehensive governance under the rule of law, and also the inevitable requirement of guaranteeing judicial democracy and safeguarding judicial justice. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 18 th Communist Party of China, passed the “CPC Central Committee’s Decision on the Comprehensive Promotion of Major Issues of Governing the Country Under the Rule of Law”, clearly put forward the basic requirements for improving the people’s jury system. The existing formation and the operation effect of the people’s jury system, are depending on the legal specific cultural tradition and the social demands. Along with the progress of our gradually-improved law system, people’s legal consciousness has been enhanced, the social justice has become an inevitable requirement of the society, therefore, the people’s jury system still demonstrates great space for improvement, the judicial value will definitely be attached with importance and given a full play to.