The Research On The Commission Trial In Qing Dynasty

The legal system in Qing Dynasty is more complete and mature in ancient China. On the basis of the previous generation, unique litigation procedures and systems are formed in Qing Dynasty. The Commission trial is a special system which independent from the normal litigation procedures and systems. In the form of the Qing Commission trial, it can be divided into commissioner independent trial and commissioner consultation trial. In judicial practice, the official candidates are common to be seen as the committee members.Commissioner consultation trial means two or more officials to hear the cases. It is conducive to play multiplayer wisdom and guarantee the quality of the trials. And different from the Commissioner consultation trial, in commissioner independent trial, the Commissioner is prohibited to hear the cases with the former officials, because it receives many cases that are the Appeals cases and the mistaken cases from lower trials.The Commission trial in Qing Dynasty has multifaceted functions. First, two or more officials are appointed to hear the cases to guarantee the quality; Second, for the Appeals cases, the commission trial reflects the higher judicial organs’ supervision to the lower judicial organs; Third, it makes full use of the trial candidate resources to ease the pressure on duly authorized officers. The commission trial is widespread in late Qing Dynasty, suggesting that it fits the justice needs to some extent. From a historical perspective, it has a certain positive significance.The paper is divided into three parts:In the first part of the paper, it introduces the emergence and development of the commission trial and discusses the meaning of commission trial in Qing Dynasty and the trial participants.The second part discusses the legal regulations and the implementation of committee trial in Qing Dynasty. It revolves around the startup, the limitation, the hearing, the judgment and other aspects of cases. On the basis of that, an objective analysis is made that the rational structure and value of the commission trial in Qing Dynasty.The third part of the paper sorts the functions of Commission trial in injustice redress, error correction, governmental supervision, prevention and so on.The commission trial provides a fast-track for timely and effective handling of civil cases. It corrects the misjudgments in the original sentences and also plays a strong supervisory role for the officials violations. Meanwhile, it can prevent the upper controlled cases which are not mentioned and the disputes that may arise in the future. Its positive effects are relatively obvious in the clear and bright dynastic times. But the Commission trial also has some limitations such as: excessive commission, bureaucrats’ shield one another and the increase of judicial costs.As an important part of the internal supervisory system in the judicial organs of the Qing Dynasty, the implementation of Commission trial played an important role for the social stability and the alleviation of social contradiction at the end of feudal society. However, as the absence of pluralistic authority competition in the Qing Dynasty, undoubtedly, the design of Commission trial takes serving the Dynasty ruling order as the highest purpose.Due to the pursuing of highly centralized authoritarian regime, there exists many institutional chronic illness that cannot eradicated, which weakens the effectiveness of Commission trial in the judicial practice to some extent.