A Study On Procedural Rules Of Criminal Cross-examination

The Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of the People’s Courts-Outline of the Fourth Five-Year Reform of the People’s Courts(2014-2018)issued by the Supreme People’s Court in 2015 pointed out that the reform opinions on the criminal procedure system of "cross-examination of evidence in the courtroom,ascertainment of case facts in the courtroom,publication of litigation and defense opinions in the courtroom,and formation of adjudication reasons in the courtroom" should be implemented.The Opinions on Deepening the Comprehensive Reform of the Judicial System of the People’s Courts – Outline of the Fifth Five-Year Reform of the People’s Courts(2019-2023)is sued by the Supreme People’s Court in 2019 also put forward the need to "deepen the reform of the trial-centered criminal procedure system and ensure that court trials play a substantive role".However,due to the use of the "authority doctrine"-led interrogation-style litigation model in China,judges are still accustomed to relying on the "case file transfer system" for trial,resulting in an abnormally heavy investigation procedure as a pre-trial procedure,the cross-examination procedure in criminal trials is not taken seriously,the court confrontation is not strong,and a balanced prosecution and defense triangle structure has not been formed.According to the above actual situation,the primary reason for the blurring of criminal cross-examination procedures is that China has not yet established independent and systematic rules for criminal cross-examination procedures.The current effective rules of criminal cross-examination procedures are scattered in legal provisions and normative documents,and some of them only have guidance on criminal cross-examination procedures and lack normative binding.In judicial practice,the following problems exist in the operation of the rules for criminal cross-examination procedures at the current stage: At the level of criminal procedure guidance,the principle of direct speech has not been implemented,resulting in the absence of a rigid pretrial written testimony exclusion rule,and the large number of written testimony applications have hindered the realization of "face-to-face" cross-examination procedures;the rules for witness appearance in court and related protection and relief measures are not perfect,resulting in a low rate of witnesses appearing in court;the method of presenting evidence and the method of presenting evidence are formalized,and the batch presentation and summary presentation of evidence form an obstacle to the evidence review of the subject of the litigation The rules of questioning are rigid,and the lack of detailed provisions on cross-examination rules hinders the realization of multiple rounds of questioning;there are conflicts in the legal provisions on cross-examination,and at the same time,there are no specific provisions,resulting in the inability to initiate cross-examination;due to the lack of detailed rules and remedies for the objection rules,it is difficult for the defense to submit cross-examination opinion s;and the rules for cross-examination of special witnesses are hollow,making it difficult for "Vulnerable Witnesses" to cross-examine their evidence.Through the relevant theoretical research and case sample inves tigation practice research on the procedural rules for criminal cross-examination,and with reference to the legislative situation of some countries in different jurisdictions outside the jurisdiction on criminal cross-examination procedural rules,this paper puts forward the following suggestions in view of the problems existing in the operation of criminal cross-examination procedural rules: implement the principle of direct speech in the guidelines of criminal procedure;strengthen the rules for witness appearance,including mandatory witness appearance rules and relevant protective measures and relief measures;and improve the rules for the presentation and presentation of evidence by litigation subjects in the rules for presenting evidence Complete the cross-examination rules in the interrogation rules,adding rules for induced questioning;refine the provisions on the initiation of cross-examination,the subject of cross-examination,and the method of cross-examination in the rules for cross-examination;detail the specific provisions on the subject of objection,the timing and reason for the submission of objections in the rules of objection;and for special cross-examination subjects,construct "Vulnerable Witness" cross-examination rules.It is hoped that reasonable suggestions will be put forward on the relevant problems existing in the rules of criminal cross-examination procedure,and provide corresponding improvement paths for China’s criminal cross-examination procedural rules.