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Analysis On The Reform Of People’s Jury System In Henan Province

Posted on:2014-10-13Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:F WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2296330467487494Subject:Legal theory
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At present, the Chinese courts are facing tremendous judicial credibility crisis in the period of social transformation, the justice of the judicial judgments is to be questioned and the problem of litigation petition becomes serious; the original People’s Assessor System actually exists in name only in most areas of China for the legal procedures related are not perfect, which has not fully reflected the judicial democracy and has not given full play to the role of judicial supervision. In such a situation, the Supreme People’s Court calls on local people’s courts at various levels to promote judicial democratization, and the reformation points to the People’s Assessor System, hoping to enhance the judicial democracy, to maintain social stability, to solve the problem of litigation petition, and to strengthen the judicial authority by the reformation of the People’s Assessor System. Against this background, local courts at all levels have to implement the reformation of the People’s Assessor System, for example, the People’s Jury System in Henan Province, representatives of citizens attending the trial in Shanxi Province, and the similar reformations has happened in Dongguan City of Guangdong Province, Chengdu City of Sichuan Province, and Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province. But the one which is best known is the reform of People’s Jury System in Henan Province.The reform of people’s Jury System in Henan Province mainly includes the following measures:Each court at the basic level should set up People’s Jury Member Library where there must be no less than500people; There must be9to13people in each case who are randomly selected from the People’s Jury Member Library; The People’s Jury System is mainly applied to these cases which have important social consequences, or involve group profit, or affect social harmony and stability, or one of the parties petitioned repeatedly and so on, which takes advantage of affinity of the ordinary people to solve the problems faced by people’s court. The comments of the People’s Jury are not legally binding on the Full Court, but have an important reference value. If all jurors or more than three-fourths of the jurors reach an agreement which must never conflict with the law, the Full Court shall generally adopt it. But if the Full Court differs from the agreement of the People’s Jury, the relevant legal affairs will be submitted to the Judicial Committee to discuss.Comparing the People’s Jury System with the People’s Assessor System and the western Jury System shows that it is not better. The People’s Jury has no right to make the final decision and therefore can not supervise the Full Court effectively. The People’s Jury is a miniature democratic institution which has the dangerous tendency of tyranny of the majority. But it does not have the filtering mechanism to exclude the irrational factors out of the public opinion, and therefore it may cause public trial which conflict with judicial independence. On the legality of the reformation, the People’s Jury System has been implemented in the bottom-up way, which may violate the Constitution and the law. Because only the National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee have the right to reform the judicial system. First, change the relevant law; then carry on the reforms to ensure the judicial reform unity nationally. The People’s Jury also exists some irrationality in the details of the system design. For example, the parties have no right to choose whether apply the jury trial or not. In this case, it is unfair to let them bear the verdict of the jury. The People’s Jury System is applied to the second process of judgment, which contravenes the judgment rules. Most countries in the world apply the Jury System to the procedure of first instance. Finally, the People’s Jury can not operate effectively. There are500people in the People’s Jury Member Library, the percentage of which to the local population is less than1%, which can not reflect judicial democracy. The People’s Jury has no right to make the final decision and therefore can not supervise the Full Court effectively, which can not operate effectively partly because of the disadvantages of current judicial system. In a word, the premise of the People’s Jury System operating effectively is that other legal systems cooperate perfectly and the political democracy develops well in China.
Keywords/Search Tags:people’s jury system, juror, jury, judicial reform
PDF Full Text Request
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