Criminal Procedure Law (Volume 1: General Principles) -- 21st Century Legal Graduate Reference Series

Author: Lin Yuxiong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: From 2002 to 2003, Taiwan's Criminal Procedure Law underwent the most rapid and dramatic transformation since its implementation. Two rounds of amendments changed over a hundred articles and dismantled the original framework of the law. To adapt to these changes, the third edition of this book has been thoroughly rewritten. In addition to correcting errors in the previous edition, the content, cases, statistics, literature, and judgments have been completely updated.
First, regarding the text, the revisions to the first volume mainly include: the scope of judicial investigation (→2.4) and related sections, as well as defendant/criminal suspect (→5), on-the-spot inspection and search (→10.5), forensic detention and physical examination (→10.7), the hearsay rule (→11.2.5), co-defendants (→11.3.1), evidence preservation (→11.4), and evidence prohibition (→12.1). The second volume's main revisions cover: the suspended prosecution system (→16.3), the trial submission system (→16.7), the prosecution review system (→17.2), private prosecution (→18), trial (→19, including preparatory procedures, trial sequence, and courtroom interrogation), summary trial (→20.7), and other related sections. However, due to the complexity of the issues involved, this book intentionally reduces its length, providing only a brief overview, with detailed explanations replaced by references to literature. As for the new practical insights and statistical data, this edition selectively incorporates and updates them. The book selects Supreme Court judgments up to mid-2003, prioritizing those with more substantial content and newer dates, as before. The practical statistics have also been updated to data published by mid-2003. The total number of newly added pages is kept to around 100, while the number of minor and major revisions exceeds hundreds, which cannot be listed here. Nevertheless, omissions are inevitable, and the reader is kindly asked for their understanding.
The publication of this book and the completion of its third edition are owed to too many people. First, the entire members of the Criminal Procedure Law Seminar have continuously provided insights and perspectives for this book, for which the author is deeply grateful. Furthermore, the author's views on the hearsay rule in this edition were guided by Dr. Wu Xunlong of Stanford University, and the author extends their thanks here. Regarding why Taiwan's unitary and identical issues are so unique, the author only realized its legal historical origins after Professor Wang Taisheng pointed them out, and in addition to expressing their gratitude, this edition has added a note (Note 7 in Chapter 8) to guide relevant literature. Additionally, Case 10-5 in Chapter 10 and Note 54 were originally intended to be deleted due to the settled nature of the search and seizure amendments, but to express gratitude to Professor Wang Zhaopeng, this edition retains them temporarily and adds relevant literature and references to differing views. For detailed explanations, please refer to the author's next revision of Search and Seizure Annotations.
For the text corrections and revisions, the author is grateful to the efforts of three graduate students—Wang Shifan, Li Ruimin, and Cui Yunfei—for their significant assistance. Among them, Wang Shifan meticulously checked the old and new practical insights, providing readers with detailed practical information. Thanks to everyone's help, this edition avoids many oversights, and the author is deeply appreciative.
Regarding publishing matters, special thanks are extended to Yuanzhao Publishing Company. Finally, although this new edition is derived from the accumulation and transformation of the previous one, according to publishing conventions, only the preface of the first edition and the preface of the new edition are included. The revisions and acknowledgments for other editions are still available for readers to refer to independently.
Beyond organizing, analyzing, and critiquing traditional criminal procedure law textbooks and practical insights, this book attempts to break from tradition by redistributing the emphasis on criminal procedure law topics, shifting the focus to the structural principles of criminal procedure, coercive measures, evidence rules, evidence prohibition, and courtroom activities. In the revised edition, the scope of explanation is expanded to include the 2001 new regulations on search and seizure, the 2002 scope of judicial investigation, prosecution review, suspended prosecution system, and trial submission system, as well as the major reforms in 2003 regarding physical examination, forensic detention, hearsay rule, evidence prohibition, co-defendants, preparatory procedures, and courtroom interrogation. The goal is to present a comprehensive and profound understanding of criminal procedure law by combining the old and the new, carrying forward the past while opening the way for the future.
Additionally, to align theory with practice, each chapter includes several cases to aid comprehension, most of which are adapted from actual Taiwanese cases, embodying the principle that "the life of procedural law lies in its application."