On The Principle Of The Investigation’s Secret-ness

In recent years, with the deepening of the reform of the judiciary and judicial democracypromotion, the open proceeding has become an important keywords, attracted the attention ofacademia. Based on the basic principle of "open justice","open trial", many scholars putsforward the "transparence investigation procedure" to improve quality of case handling. Butthis view is properly arguable, where there is a misunderstanding on the investigation’ssecret-ness principle.As a basic legal principle governing the investigation procedures, the investigation’ssecret-ness principle have embodied in many countries laws. The investigation’s secret-nessprinciple have legitimate basis and the value of its existence. Current social, media freedomand judicial independence are essential to civilization, and in the judicial practice, both oftenconflict. In order to meet the needs of their own development and the public’s right to learnthe truth, the media often get case information through various channels, although thisconstitutes the public supervision of judicature, but violates the independence of the judiciary,thereby giving the judge handling the case a tremendous pressure. At this point, if not adhereto the investigation’s secret-ness principle, but blindly cater to public opinion, it will hinderthe process of China’s judicial independence and fair. The investigation’s secret-ness principlehas important theoretical significance and application value for academics and practitioners.Accordingly, this article dividing into five parts were elaborated connotations and theoreticalbasis of the investigation’s secret-ness principle, the misunderstanding of the principle,extraterritorial modes, current application status and problem and the correspondingimprovement measures. Follows:The first part surrounding the meaning and legitimate basis of the investigation’ssecret-ness principle to discuss, clarify two meanings of the principle, which pointed outthat the investigation’s secret-ness principle is not absolute, there is a corresponding exception.The reason why the investigation follow the investigation’s secret-ness principle, is based onrealizing the main purpose of the investigation, protecting the right to the presumption ofinnocence and the right of reputation, protecting the legitimate interests of the suspects,victims, witnesses and their relatives.The second part mainly describes the controversy betweening transparence investigationand the secret investigation, reviews the misunderstanding of the investigation’s secret-ness principle of the current academics.The third part mainly introduces the extraterritorial modes of the investigation’ssecret-ness principle, dividing the attitude of foreign countries and regions on secretinvestigation into three categories: the type of secret investigation, the type of limited secretinvestigation and the type of private investigation.The fourth part elaborate the current status and problems of the investigation’ssecret-ness principle at two levels, the investigation’s secret-ness principle has not beenclearly defined at the legislative level, only be reflected in the interpretation of the relevantlaw, but in practice aspects, there are issues of our investigation information over public.The fifth part mainly introduces how the investigation’s secret-ness principle should beestablished and be perfect. The investigation’s secret-ness principle established as a principleof international practice, should be the proper meaning of Chinese Criminal Proceduredevelopment. This section mainly discourse the meaning and exceptions of the investigation’ssecret-ness principle, and introduces how to complete its related rules and systems on playingthe specification and constraints of the investigation’s secret-ness principle.