Reform and Improvement of Criminal Litigation Documents in Chinese Courts

Author: Zhou Daolun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-03-01
Features: This book consists of an "Introduction" and the following six parts:
The "Introduction" focuses on discussing why criminal judgment documents must be reformed, the principles that reforms should follow, the key areas of reform, how judgment document reform can implement "streamlining and differentiation," and how it can adapt to the needs of further expanding opening-up.
Part I is the "Introduction to the Reform of Judgment Documents by the President of the Supreme People's Court," which mainly collects a series of discussions on judgment document reform by the leadership of the Supreme People's Court in various meetings and documents in recent years. From these discussions, we can see the importance, necessity, key areas, objectives, and requirements of judgment document reform, thereby clarifying the guiding principles for the reform.
Part II is the "Court Criminal Trial Document Formats," which includes the "Court Criminal Trial Document Formats" (samples) issued by the Supreme People's Court on April 30, 1999, and additional new formats supplemented by the Supreme People's Court from July 1, 1999, to June 2001, based on the actual needs of criminal trial work. These formats are accompanied by detailed explanations and propose standardized requirements for preparing various judgment documents, facilitating practical application.
Part III is the "Notices, Resolutions, and Q&A," which mainly collects the arrangements made by the Supreme People's Court regarding the reform of criminal judgment documents after the revised formats were issued on April 1999, as well as the resolutions to the requests from lower courts. Additionally, it includes the "Answers to Several Questions Regarding the Implementation of the 'Court Criminal Trial Document Formats'" issued by the General Office of the Supreme People's Court in June 2000 after extensive research. These resolutions and answers help judges correctly understand and implement the revised formats, further standardizing the preparation of criminal trial documents and improving their quality.
Part IV is the "Criminal Judgment Document Preparation," which provides a systematic discussion on how to prepare various criminal judgment documents (including first-instance, second-instance, death penalty review, retrial, and parole judgment documents) according to the requirements of the revised formats.
Part V is the "Outstanding Criminal Judgment Documents," which mainly collects some outstanding criminal judgment documents recognized and commended at the National Court Criminal Judgment Document Work Symposium held in Shenzhen on June 1, 2001, all accompanied by critiques. The critiques highlight the key strengths and distinctive features while also pointing out areas for improvement.
Part VI is the "Legal Basis for Preparing Criminal Judgment Documents," which is divided into two categories: procedural law and substantive law. They are classified into laws, judicial interpretations, and other regulatory documents. The judicial interpretations are those issued by the Supreme People's Court on how to specifically apply criminal laws in criminal trial work after the revised Criminal Procedure Law and Criminal Law came into effect. This includes recent interpretations to support the "Strict Strike Campaign" and the regulation of the market economy. Thus, it provides important legal grounds for preparing criminal judgment documents.
From the above introduction, it can be seen that the content is systematic, up-to-date, and applicable, with theory closely linked to practice, making it a distinctive feature of the book.