1985 "criminal procuratorial law" (hereinafter referred to as the new law) mainly puts forward a new procuratorial organ system, clarifies the functions and powers of procurators at all levels and the relationship between superiors and subordinates, and clarifies the relationship between procuratorial organs, police organs and judicial organs in the criminal procuratorial stage. The new law also makes new provisions on specific issues such as the suspension of litigation, the time limit and the cost, equipment and housing of criminal proceedings. This paper only expounds the main changes of the procuratorial organ system and procuratorial work involved in the new law as follows.
First, the new system of procuratorial organs.
According to the new system of procuratorial organs stipulated in 1985 Criminal Prosecution Law, in England and Wales, apart from the central legal affairs department, a criminal prosecution office (or translated into the Royal Prosecution Service) has been established, with the attorney general as the head. There are several districts, and each district has a public prosecutor's office. The chief prosecutor is responsible for supervising the work of the public prosecutor's office. The procurator-general and other procurators are appointed by the procurator-general. The attorney general also has the power to appoint lawyers or other people as prosecutors. The new law also stipulates that the procurator-general is appointed by the procurator-general, who accepts the supervision of the procurator-general and reports to him. It can be seen that the new system consists of the central legal affairs department, the criminal prosecutor's office and the district prosecutor's office headed by the attorney general. It implements the principle of national unity and hierarchical management, and there is a clear relationship between supervision and supervision. The establishment of the new system has improved the system of procuratorial organs in Britain and strengthened the power of procuratorial organs, which is undoubtedly very beneficial to improving the efficiency and quality of criminal proceedings.
Two. Duties and powers of the Department of Justice
The Criminal Procedure Law stipulates the duties and powers of the procurator-general, but it does not involve whether the original duties of the procurator-general as the head of the central legal affairs department have changed. The duties and powers of the Attorney General stipulated in the new law are as follows.
(1) Submit an annual report on the performance of duties submitted by the Attorney General to the Parliament and make it public.
(two) the appointment of the attorney general, the candidate for the attorney general must have more than 65,438+00 years of experience as a trial lawyer or lawyer; To determine the remuneration of directors (subject to the approval of the Ministry of Finance); Personnel transfer through the formulation of laws and regulations; With the approval of the Ministry of Finance, it has the right to transfer personnel from other departments who mainly or completely perform procuratorial functions to the procuratorate.
(3) to supervise the work of the procurator-general; The Attorney-General may be specially appointed to report the case to him.
(four) have the right to formulate relevant regulations, such as requiring the sheriff to provide and transfer materials to the attorney general.
(5) The Attorney-General should set up a staff committee to study and clarify the roles of staff employed by various institutions in performing procuratorial functions; The Attorney General and the Attorney General should make recommendations to protect the interests of these staff members; To guide the working procedures of professional committees; The expenses required by the Committee to implement this article shall be paid by the Attorney General. The Attorney General also has the right to instruct these employees.
Three. Functions, Powers and Responsibilities of Procurators-General and Prosecutors
The attorney general shall perform the following duties according to law under the supervision of the attorney general.
(1) Initiate and conduct criminal proceedings. According to the importance or difficulty of the case, when the Director of Public Prosecutions thinks that he should institute criminal proceedings, he will institute and conduct criminal proceedings himself.
(two) to take over all criminal cases filed by the police or other people (anyone other than the police), unless otherwise required by the attorney general; To take over the restraining procedures put forward by the police or others, and the lawsuits initiated by issuing subpoenas according to Article 3 of the Anti-Obscene Publications Law 1959.
(3) To advise the police on all matters related to criminal offences when the Attorney General thinks fit.
(4) After receiving the notice from the court, to appear in court in the appeal procedure in accordance with the special provisions of this Law. If a case of contempt of the magistrate's court decision is appealed, and he is not satisfied with the decision of the criminal court, the attorney general should appear in the appeal case, appeal to the criminal division of the court of appeal, and then appeal to the House of Lords.
(5) The Procurator-General shall report the performance of his duties to the Procurator-General after April 4th every year; Cases designated by the Attorney General shall be reported to him.
The attorney general should divide several districts in England and Wales; Have the right to change administrative divisions at any time; Have the right to appoint the chief procurator of the district procuratorate.
(6) In order to enable the Procurator-General to supervise and control the general prosecution activities and ensure the proper transfer of materials between the court and the Procurator-General's office, the Law stipulates that the court clerk has the responsibility to hand over the materials of each case to the Procurator-General, and the Procurator-General should also hand over the relevant materials to the criminal court officials according to the regulations. The attorney general can also ask the police chief to hand over the case materials designated by him at any time.
(7) The Attorney General shall issue operational guidelines to prosecutors to guide general principles. For example, whether to file a lawsuit, whether to stop the lawsuit, what kind of charges should be charged, and guide the trial mode adopted in a case to the magistrate's court, and so on. The Director has the right to amend the code of practice issued by him.
(8) The Attorney General has the right to appoint a junior lawyer or senior lawyer working in a government agency at any time to initiate or take over criminal cases designated by the Attorney General. The appointed lawyer enjoys all the powers of the prosecutor, but he should obey the guidance of the prosecutor when exercising his power.
(9) According to the provisions of the new law, the Crown Prosecutor should have the power of the Attorney General to prosecute and conduct litigation, but should exercise these powers under the guidance of the Attorney General. Prosecutors have the right to appear in court under legal circumstances.
(10) The new law gives the attorney general and the prosecutor the right to suspend the proceedings. The right to suspend litigation is actually a denial of the police station's initial decision to appeal to the public security court. Before the promulgation of the new law, the prosecutor could only withdraw the lawsuit with the consent of the court.
According to the new law, the suspension of litigation must be filed in the preparatory stage. In summary cases, the preparatory stage refers to any stage before the court begins to hear the prosecution's evidence; In a public prosecution case, the preparatory stage refers to the time before the defendant is committed to trial or the summary court begins to hear the prosecution's evidence.
The procedure of suspension of litigation is: the attorney general issues a notice of suspension of litigation to the clerk, explaining the reasons for suspension; The defendant shall be informed that the notice of suspension of litigation has been served on the clerk, and the defendant has the right to apply for continuation of litigation, but has no responsibility to inform the defendant of the reasons for suspension of litigation. If the defendant wishes to continue the lawsuit, he shall notify the clerk within the prescribed time limit. After receiving the notice of the defendant's request to continue the lawsuit, the clerk shall notify the procurator-general to continue the lawsuit. If the defendant fails to give the court a notice to continue the lawsuit, the case will end from the date when the attorney general informs the court.
When the police arrest someone without a license and accuse him of a crime, but the court does not receive the indictment, if the attorney general thinks that the evidence is insufficient, he can suspend the proceedings. After deciding to suspend the proceedings, the defendant shall be informed to suspend the proceedings. In this case, the consequence of discontinuing the lawsuit was that the defendant was released and received the amount stipulated by law.
Fourth, the individual's private litigation right.
The new law does not exclude the individual's right to criminal prosecution, but it stops unfounded prosecution. Private prosecution cases are brought by prosecutors, and the procurator-general generally does not take over.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) Start time of prosecution.
The new law specifies in detail the time for filing a lawsuit. If the indictment (information) is received after the magistrate's court issues a summons or an arrest warrant, the prosecution will begin; In the case of detention without a license, the prosecution begins when the defendant is informed of the crime he is accused of; The prosecution begins when the indictment is submitted under legal circumstances.
VI. Preparatory period
The new law clearly stipulates that the Minister of State has the right to stipulate the duration of the preparatory stage of criminal proceedings. The contents include: the waiting period before the prosecution stage is completed, the detention period in the magistrate's court or the criminal court; Regarding the conditions for extending the time limit, the competent court may extend it or extend it again when "there are justified and sufficient reasons" and "the prosecution has been carried out at a very appropriate speed" are satisfactory; Anyone who refuses to accept the extension decision of the magistrate's court can appeal to the criminal court. This kind of appeal is subject to the general appeal procedure. If a person refuses to accept the extension decision of the criminal court, he shall apply to the High Court for review, and the review procedure shall apply.
The new law also stipulates the legal consequences of the expiration of the comprehensive period. In any litigation stage with applicable time limit, if the comprehensive time limit expires before the completion of the litigation stage, the defendant shall be deemed innocent for whatever purpose. This provision does not apply to fugitives or absconders.