Defense is one of the important functions of modern criminal proceedings, and the conduct of criminal proceedings depends on the interaction of three functions: accusation, defense and trial, which complement each other and jointly promote the process of criminal proceedings.
In criminal proceedings, the right of defense is the most basic right of appeal for criminal suspects and defendants. Other rights in litigation are derived from the right of defense, or are closely related, such as the right to apply for withdrawal and the right to use one's own language.
Defense runs through the whole process of litigation. From the beginning of criminal proceedings to the end of the trial, you can not only exercise the right of defense by yourself, but also entrust a lawyer or other defenders to defend, refute and defend the complaints of the investigation and control organs, safeguard your legitimate rights and interests and effectively exercise your litigation rights in criminal proceedings.
The significance of the defense system in litigation, first, restricts the investigation, prosecution and trial activities, which is conducive to the public security and judicial organs to understand the case objectively and comprehensively, apply the law correctly and ensure the quality of the case; Second, it embodies the fairness and democracy of litigation, which is conducive to fully protecting citizens' legitimate rights and interests and litigation rights, thus giving full play to the role of defense and is an important embodiment of the democratization of criminal proceedings.
Article 2 of China's Criminal Procedure Law stipulates: "The task of People's Republic of China (PRC) Criminal Procedure Law is to ensure accurate and timely identification of facts, correct application of laws, punishment of criminals, protection of innocent people from criminal investigation, education of citizens to consciously abide by laws and actively fight against criminal acts, so as to safeguard the socialist legal system, protect citizens' personal rights, property rights, democratic rights and other rights, and ensure the smooth progress of socialist construction. "
The task of China's criminal procedure law can be summarized as the unity of punishing crimes and safeguarding socialist human rights, which is the key to realize the task of China's criminal procedure law. According to the requirements of this law, punishing crimes refers to the functional departments of public security, public prosecution and law. Under the premise of strictly following the principles and procedures stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Law, it is necessary to ensure that the facts of a crime are accurately and timely ascertained, the law is correctly applied and criminals are punished. Protecting socialist human rights means ensuring that innocent people are not subject to criminal investigation and that criminal suspects and defendants enjoy full litigation rights.
Punishing crimes and protecting socialist human rights run through the whole process of criminal proceedings, and actively realizing the functions of both the prosecution and the defense is an important link to accomplish the above two tasks. In the modern litigation system, the functions of prosecution, defense and trial are separated, and the prosecution and defense are the unity of opposites. The function of the procuratorate is to accuse crimes and prove that criminal acts should be convicted, so that criminals can be punished. So that the law can be realized in real life. The role of lawyers as defenders is to put forward materials and opinions to prove that criminal suspects and defendants are innocent, lightened or exempted from criminal responsibility according to facts and laws, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects and defendants, so that innocent people will not be investigated for criminal responsibility, so that people with light crimes will not be severely sentenced, and the law will be correctly implemented through the work of lawyers. Therefore, the confrontation of the function of prosecution and defense makes the facts of the case clear and the responsibility is correctly identified, which helps the judge to accurately identify the facts and correctly apply the law, so as to achieve the unity of punishing crimes and safeguarding socialist human rights. This is a unity that can only be achieved through confrontation, which is the premise and the result. This unity is the embodiment of national will and national interests.
In order to achieve this unity, the theory and practice of modern criminal procedure law strongly regulate the relative balance of the functions of both sides, which will affect the procedural justice of criminal proceedings. It affects the correct implementation of substantive law, further affects the unity of punishing crimes and safeguarding socialist human rights, and ultimately damages the embodiment of national will and the realization of national interests. Therefore, when revising the Criminal Procedure Law, China revised and supplemented the Criminal Procedure Law of 1979 on the basis of the Constitution, focusing on the task of punishing crimes and safeguarding socialist human rights, and summing up past experiences and lessons. In particular, the protection of the litigation rights of criminal suspects and defendants has been strengthened, and the principle of "no one can be found guilty without a court judgment according to law" has been added. This shows that even in criminal proceedings, China has protected socialist human rights in the form of law, adopted plea bargaining, strengthened the role of lawyers, and maintained the relative balance between the functions of the prosecution and the defense, which has played a positive role in promoting human rights protection.