The Position And Content Settings Of The Criminal Pretrial Conference

“Prior to the court session,the judges may convene the public prosecutor,the parties,the defenders or the agent AD litem,to find out the situations related to the trial,such as recusal,witness lists and exclusion of illegally obtained evidence,and to hear their opinions.”which is prescribed in Paragraph 2 of Article 182 in the 2012 revision of the“criminal procedure law of the People's Republic of China”.This is the first established system in criminal proceedings in China-“pretrial conference”.As an intermediate link between the prosecution and the court trial,it plays an important role in strengthening judicial justice,improving criminal litigation efficiency and saving litigation costs.However,the position and content of the system settings are more general in our current legal system,even many problems have not been clarified,thus,it cannot fully exert the expected effect of legislation when applicable.Therefore,this article will mainly intend to research the “pretrial conference ”on theory and legislation to summarize the current problems we are facing in our country via analyzing and comparing the current legislative regulations and local practices.Then to put forward the principle and give power generalization for setting up the system of “pretrial conference”.This article will also give the advice to detail and improve the procedure of “pretrial conference”,so that it can fulfill its function as supposed.The body of the article is divided into four chapters.The first chapter gives the precise position of the “pretrial conference” in the criminal proceedings system.This chapter is divided into two sections: the first section analyzes the relationship between the “pretrial conference” and the “out-of-court conference”.First,differentiate and analyze the related connotation of “pretrial conference” system by clarifying the concept of the pre-trial procedure,inquisitional procedure,public prosecution review process and the pretrial preparation procedure to find the location of the “pretrial conference” accurately from a logical point.Second,put forward the concept of “out-of-court conference” based on the intrinsic theory.It was composed of the “pretrial conference” and “other out-of-court conference”.The “pretrial conference” is only applied to the meeting that regarding to the trial procedural issues for the trial run smoothly before the first hearing.While,the “other out-of-court conference” includes the meetings that the topic contents have nothing to do with the trial procedural,the meetings after the first hearing and etc.This division is more conducive to determining the status of pretrial conference in criminal proceedings.Finally,present the concept and dissect the connotation of pretrial conference to summarize the three key words of “pre-trial”,“procedural questions” and “conference”.The second section analyzes the functions of the “pretrial conference” system.The second chapter will tease the legislation history of the criminal “pretrial conference”,and introduce the local practice effect of this system.Analyze the enforcement regulations of “pretrial conference” in Shanghai,Ningbo,Wenzhou,and Zhejiang,and the exposure draft on “pretrial conference” project from Dongguan city and the litigation law institute of China University of Political Science and Law to summarize and generalize the exploration situation of the local practice.The third chapter will put forward the detailed principle of setting up the system of “pretrial conference” from the respective of jurisprudence under the premise of status of this “pretrial conference” in the criminal procedure,combined with the operational difficulties faced in the judicial practice.The fourth chapter is to summarize the power of the “pretrial conference” system by combining the existing judicial practices.This chapter is divided into three sections.The first section is the necessary power generalization,which is based on the current law and judicial interpretation,and generalize the problems that must be solved in the “pretrial conference”.The second section will discuss the type of power generalization,by combining with the relevant content of the “pretrial conference” system in foreign area.And it will also dissect the content of the “pretrial conference” system that proposed by the academic circle and discuss the issues on whether include the disclosure of evidence and civil compensation in “pretrial conference” system in this chapter.The third section is the compensatory power generalization,combined with judicial practice,to propose some problems that have been solved in the “pretrial conference”.