The Predicament And Countermeasure Of Appropriate Adult Participation In China

In recent years, juvenile crime has become a global common issue. As with other countries, the number of juvenile crimes in China is also increasing, which gives a higher request to the juvenile criminal justice system of our country. Because of juveniles’own characteristics, in the criminal procedure, the state and society must pay more attention to them and provide more guarantee. To establish the juvenile justice system, Appropriate Adult Participation System is the one to be firstly taken into consideration.In the Appropriate Adult Participation System, there is the need to have a legal representative and other appropriate adults participate in the interrogation, which ensures that the criminal suspect or the defendant is under protection. Appropriate Adult Participation System, originated from the British Kenfeite murder, is gradually affirmed and applied in Australia, USA, New Zealand, and Hong Kong, especially in western countries. This system has a very good effect and high value in the practice of criminal justice, which not only effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of juveniles, but also meet the requirements of juvenile international judicial standards.The Appropriate Adult Participation System was first systematically introduced to China in 2003 and was piloted in individual areas, which accumulated valuable experience for the latter legislation. In January 1,2013, the new "Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China" (hereinafter called the new Criminal Procedure Law) formally promulgated and implemented, in which the new Article No.270 defines the Appropriate Adult Participation system, making a great progress in the juvenile justice system of our country. The Appropriate Adult Participation system has been established in China since then. With the implementation of new Criminal Procedure Law, adults attending the proceedings greatly protects the rights of juveniles and can be said a great achievement in the juridical practice. However, because the provisions of the system is too principled, the legislation is imperfect and lack of appropriate juridical interpretation, which makes the right and obligation of adults ambiguous. The new Criminal Procedure Law has been promulgated for nearly two years, and during the process of the implementation the Appropriate Adult System, there are many difficulties and problems, which have to be resolved. In view of the problems in the judicial practice, we need to analyse them, combined with the pilot work and experience from overseas, to find a better way to establish an Appropriate Adult Participation System for our country, which can better promote the construction of juvenile juridical system, and provide better protection for juveniles.At present, the academic community has made a thorough study on the situation of juvenile crime, from different aspects, including the characteristics of the crime, the internal and external causes, the correction mode, the discretion, the trend and so on, and has achieved some success. However, to some extent, how to protect the rights and interests of juveniles in the proceedings has been neglected. Therefore, it has important theoretical and practical significance to research and establish an excellent system of Appropriate Adult Participation System, and perfect the procedural rules of the criminal objects in criminal procedure.