A Study On The Application Of The Leniency System For Admitting Guilt And Accepting Punishment In Cases Of Duty-related Crimes

Since the revision of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China(hereinafter referred to as the Criminal Procedure Law)in 2018,the leniency system for plea of guilty and punishment has been formally put into practice to provide a Chinese solution to the contradiction between justice and efficiency in the field of criminal justice,and the Criminal Procedure Law and the Guidance on the Application of the Leniency System for Plea of Guilty and Punishment(hereinafter referred to as the Guidance)formulated and issued by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Security,the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Justice The Criminal Procedure Law and the Guiding Opinions on the Application of the System of Pleading Guilty to Punishment(hereinafter referred to as the Guiding Opinions)formulated and issued by the Supreme People's Court,the Supreme People's Procuratorate,in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Security,the Ministry of State Security,and the Ministry of Justice both provide concrete procedural safeguards for the rights of those who plead guilty to punishment.The Supervision Law of the People's Republic of China(hereinafter referred to as "Supervision Law")has opened the way for the application of the plea system of leniency in the investigation procedure of duty crime cases,which is conducive to promoting the deepening of the reform of the national supervision system,consolidating the results of anti-corruption work already achieved,and constantly optimizing the ways and methods of handling duty crime cases and improving the efficiency of the process.This paper examines the concept of the plea system of leniency,breaks it down and interprets it into plea of guilty,plea of punishment and leniency according to the Guidance,and analyzes the development history and application of the system.By introducing the differential provisions of the plea system in the Supervision Law and the Criminal Procedure Law,the special nature of the application of the plea system for leniency in cases of duty crimes is highlighted.It also draws out the problems of the system from the special features and tries to analyze the reasons for the problems.Accordingly,corresponding countermeasures are proposed,including establishing unified standards for the application of the plea system to reduce confusion in its application;refining the procedures for the application of the plea system in the investigation stage to improve the standardization;strengthening the supervision of duty crime cases in the supervision and investigation procedures to ensure the legality;permitting lawyers to intervene in the supervision and investigation procedures of duty crime cases to safeguard the right to be prosecuted;and focusing on improving the supervisory organs' operational capacity and level.We try to improve the application and development of the leniency system of plea and punishment in duty crime cases from the causes of the problem,in order to provide some reference opinions on the solution ideas to the difficult problems in practice.