Research On The Protection Of The Defendant's Procedural Rights In The Criminal Trial By Default System

Prior to the promulgation of the Criminal Procedure Law,which came into effect on October 26,2018,China's trial by default only existed in civil and administrative proceedings.The Criminal Procedure Law did not stipulate the system of trial by default.The lack of legislation mainly from that the basic framework of China's ordinary criminal procedure system is the triangular framework of the combination of prosecution,defense and trial.Although the system of trial by default has the participation of defenders,it lacks the central character of criminal proceedings-the defendant.The system's litigation structure is not complete.The defendant does not participate in the trial activities,and its litigation rights are difficult to be guaranteed.In judicial practice,it is not uncommon that the defendant do not participate in the trial,especially the corrupt officials fleeing becomes the focus of public attention in recent years.On October 27,2005,China acceded to the United Nations Convention against Corruption,which stipulates that the return of corrupt funds should be based on effective judgments.However,at that time,China's law did not make any provisions on the trial by default,it could not give full play to the role of the Convention.The Criminal Procedure Law of 2012 solves the problem of dealing with illegal income after criminals escape or die and established confiscation procedure of Illegal Income.But the confiscation procedure and the default trial procedure are two completely different concepts.The amendment of the Criminal Procedure Law in 2012 did not solve the problem of punishing corrupt officials.And on March 20,2018,the Supervision Law of the People's Republic of China was promulgated,and the functions of procuratorial organ have been greatly adjusted.In order to fight crime in time,supplement the confiscation procedure,improve the connection between the Supervision Law and the Criminal Procedure Law,and promote international anti-corruption activities,China formally established our country's trial by default system in the Criminal Procedure Law of 2018.In this paper,the author firstly elaborates on the definition and classification of criminal trial by default,and then draws the conclusion that the litigation structure of this system is incomplete,the application procedure is very strict,and the scope of application is limited.As long as we construct a perfect trial by default system,we can achieve the balance between litigation justice and litigation efficiency,and achieve the unity of punishing crimes and safeguarding human rights.In addition,many countries and regions have already specified the trial system in detail,and have many years of judicial practice experience This paper investigates the protection of the defendant's litigation rights in the absence trial system of three typical countries-the United States,France and Germany,to provide an important reference for improving the trial system in China.According to the Criminal Procedure Law promulgated in 2018,the object of China's criminal default trial system can be divided into three categories:1)criminal suspects and defendants who abscond abroad in crimes of corruption,seriously endanger national security and terrorist activities which need to be tried in time and approved by the Supreme Procuratorate(2)defendants who are unable to appear in court because of a serious illness and who have suspended trial for more than six months.(3)defendants who have evidence to prove innocence or who have died in a court retrial case.From the perspective in the protection of the three types's litigation right,the author interprets in detail the seven regulations of Chapter 3,Part 5 of the new Criminal Procedure Law.And in order to improve China's judicial system and effectively guarantee the litigation rights of the absent defendants,the author puts forward own views in the shortcomings and disputes of the laws and regulations in the aspects of the right to know,court trial procedure and relief procedure of the absent defendants.