Research On The Litigation And Trial Procedures Of Privileged Groups From Qin To Early Han

The litigation and adjudication procedures of the privileged groups from Qin to the early Han Dynasty are more special than the general cases.The operation mechanism of the litigation and trial procedure in the case of privileged groups is as follows: the emperor has jurisdiction over the nobles such as feudatory kings,vassals,the sons of feudatory kings and other nobles,and the senior officials,sheriffs,prime ministers of vassal states,and other officials with equal rank of more than two thousand stones.The sheriffs have jurisdiction over the officials with the rank of more than six hundred stones and nobles with the rank of over Wudafu.In the arrest process,only bureaucratic aristocrats such as feudatory kings,the sons of feudatory kings and officials with ranks of more than two thousand stones enjoy the privilege of asking for instructions when arresting.In the trial procedure,the emperor's case will be referred to specific judicial organs for trial,or directly to the court officer.The shire itself is responsible for the trial or appoints the county to conduct the trial.After the trial is completed,it needs to issue its own judgment opinion,and attach the legal provisions based on it for the reference of the superior.In cases under the jurisdiction of the shire,if there are nobles with the rank over Wudafu and officials with the rank of more than six hundred stones may be sentenced to a penalty exceeding Nai,then the case needs to be appealed to the emperor.In cases under the jurisdiction of the emperor,all outcomes must be appealed to the emperor.In the case requested,the emperor made the final judgment.After sorting out the litigation and trial procedures of privileged group crimes,the article further discusses the special system embodied in it.The petition system specifically refers to the need to appeal the case to the emperor at the judgment stage.This system had already appeared in Qin Dynasty,and it also continued in the early Han Dynasty.The cases in "Zou Yanshu" are examples of the petition system.Jurisdiction over the criminal cases of privileged groups needs to be "raised" based on the identity of the person involved,in order to avoid possible criminal interference in the trial of the case.In fact,this measure increases the judicial intervention of the superior authorities in the case.In terms of article structure,the full text is divided into four chapters:The first chapter sorts out the litigation and trial procedures of general cases from Qin to early Han.First,it defines what is a general case from Qin to the early Han Dynasty,and secondly,it analyzes the litigation and trial procedures applicable to the general case,and explains the specific contents of "prosecution","judicial opinion",and "judgment".The second chapter is to study the pre-trial procedures of the privileged group crime.This chapter mainly discusses two procedures: prosecution and arrest.Among them,feudatory kings,vassals,the sons of feudatory kings,and the senior officials,sheriffs,prime ministers of vassal states,when they committed crimes,their cases must be prosecuted to the emperor,that is,the emperor has jurisdiction over such cases.Nobles with the rank over Wudafu committed crimes,their cases need to file a prosecution against the shire,that is,the jurisdiction of such cases is in the shire.Through combing,it is found that the jurisdiction of the criminal cases of privileged groups from the Qin to the early Han Dynasties reflects the characteristics of "increasing the trial level".It also analyzes the "no unauthorized arrest" from Qin to early Han,and points out that this is a privilege owned by a few nobles and officials.The third chapter discusses the trial procedure of criminal cases of privileged groups from Qin to early Han.The trial procedure includes hearing,argumentation,judgment opinion and final judge.Among them,hearing,argumentation and judgement opinion are all trial procedures,and final judge is a judgment procedure.It was found that the feudatory kings had a relatively complicated situation in the trial procedure,and sometimes they could enjoy the privilege of not being arrested and jailed for interrogation,but the case was still ascertained through interrogation of other persons involved.It was also found that the sons of feudatory kings,vassals,and the senior officials,sheriffs,prime ministers of vassal states had a more regular situation in the trial procedure than the feudatory kings,and their cases are often heard by the court officer,and they did not receive preferential treatment during interrogation.The purpose of the trial is to thoroughly investigate the facts of the crime and apply the law to the crime.This process requires professional legal knowledge to complete,so the trial organ needs to issue its own judgment opinion,and attach the legal provisions on which it is based for the emperor's reference.For cases under the jurisdiction of the shire,the shire can try the case on its own,or refer the case to the county under its jurisdiction for trial.The trial process highlights the avoidance of the persons involved.In addition,in particular,when there is a competition between the trial procedure in the case of "death crime and manslaughter" and the trial procedure of the privileged group litigation,the litigation trial procedure of the privileged group is given priority.The judgment procedure is mainly expressed as a petition.For cases under the jurisdiction of the emperor,the trial organ shall report the facts and judgments of the case to the emperor.In the case heard by the shire,if the verdict is likely to be punished Nai or more,it is necessary to report the case to superior authority and ask superior authority to report to the emperor.For complex cases,the emperor may order the officials to discuss the crimes,but it does not prevent the emperor from having the final judgment.The forth chapter examines the petition system from Qin to the early Han Dynasty and the special review system for privileged groups.The study found that behind "increasing the trial level" of the privileged group cases is the concept of identity hierarchy from Qin to early Han.And this system created a kind of "upward responsibility" trial mode.