Study On The Appropriate Adult System

Compared with adults, non-adults' body and mind are not mature, they lack the control of behavior and language, their ability of forecast and discrimination are relatively weak, and they can be easily affected by the external factors. Therefore, it has become a consensus that non-adults need special protection in criminal judicial system. The appropriate adult system of criminal procedural, as the concrete manifestation of this special protection system, is confirmed by international law. Because it considers the physical and mental characteristics, maximize the non-adults benefits, and is based on the theory of national consortium theory. In 2012, China revised the “criminal procedural law”, and its article 270 takes other countries mature experience as examples, and establishes the appropriate adult system for the first time, fills the blank of Chinese law. The system can be said to be a breakthrough of the process of the trimming. Compared with the similar system originated in Britain, Chinese appropriate adult system is used not only in detection stage, but also examination and prosecution stage and trial stage. This break the limitation of English law which uses this system only in the detection stage. From the angle of legislation, Chinese appropriate adult system has been walking in the forefront of the world.The appropriate adult system can be understood from three aspects: first, all the criminal judicial procedure which has non-adults to be criminal suspects, defendants, victims or witnesses should have non-case workers adults around to help when the oral evidence is being exacted; second, the form is to be present during the process of extraction the oral evidence and to supervise the behavior of the investigators; finally, the fundamental function of appropriate adult is to guarantee the non-adults a fair and impartial judicial procedure, and maintain the entity justice.According to the previous scholars' study, there are four main function of appropriate adult system: supervision, communication, soothe, and education, in which the supervision is the most important one. The litigation status of an appropriate adult differs from other participants in the procedure. They should be neutral, but not just a bystander, their neutrality requires they should be impartial when they are at work, they should protect the non-adults' legitimate rights and interests, and help to solve the case smoothly. Therefore, we should base on the adults' basic duty and function to study the problem existing in the appropriate adult system, and to put forward practical and feasible way to solve the problem.The author, through consulting relevant literature books, interviewing the related judicial officers engaged in the criminal judicial procedure, and combining those with his own experience of judicial practice, put forward that the most urgent problem to be solved is the selection of the appropriate adults, the right to be present of the appropriate adults and the participation of a lawyer.The selection should emphasize the adaptation considering from the function and original intention of this system. Only the most appropriate adults can protect the non-adults' right from infringement farthest. This is the requirement of maximize the non-adults' right, and also the base on which the system set up. But at present, in China, the selection of appropriate adult is not fully consider the adaptation. Especially it still list the legal agent and non-adults' relatives as appropriate adults, and consider the legal agent prior to other appropriate adults. But in fact, legal agents or the relatives may be unsuitable. In addition, among the appropriate adults, the proportion of legal workers is small, so the right tends to be formalized during the subsequent right exercise. The problem above is so glaring so it needs be solved properly. If we can give the legal agents and relatives the legal right to be present and then make difference between them and the appropriate adults by revising laws, thus it can realize the protection of parental right and due process right, for example, to permit legal agent and appropriate adults to be present at the same time during criminal judicial process. Besides, it can better ensure the neutrality of appropriate adults if we change the existed mode of selecting other appropriate adults, make the mode to be dominated by some other party protection organization rather than prosecution organs. And the legal workers act as the appropriate adults can most reflect the principles and concepts of this system.The right to be present is the most important right for appropriate adults to take effect, and it is the main way to realize this system. If they are not present, they may not protect the non-adults' right. However, the right and obligation of appropriate adults is not so perfect in the law, and the formalization of appropriate adults' present right, this two problem is particularly prominent. Therefore, the main orientation is to supply the legislation and the obligation of appropriate adult system, clear the legal consequences and relief measures, organize some training and exchange to improve appropriate adults' adaptive capacity.It is a subject which is debated hotly that whether lawyers can be the appropriate adults. Because in the process of transplantation, many countries do not support this. But in the current judicial condition, lawyers acting as the appropriate adults can help to realize the function of this system, and can provide practice factors for the system of the presence right of lawyer. And in order to realize the protection for the non-adults, lawyers should act as the appropriate adults and defenders in the criminal judicial process.