Chen Guangzhong is rigorous in his research, advocating science, advocating innovation and paying attention to pragmatism. Based on China's national conditions, and keeping a close eye on the international research trends and trends, he has been diligently pursuing and writing for decades (publishing 35 books, 19 textbooks and more than 221 papers), forming his own systematic academic thoughts. Mainly reflected in the following aspects: (1) About litigation values < P > Chen Guangzhong believes that the value of procedural law can be divided into instrumental value and independent value; In modern countries ruled by law, substantive law and procedural law complement each other, and there can be no distinction between primary and secondary; It should be acknowledged that the first value of procedural law is to ensure the correct implementation of substantive law, and at the same time, its important independent value cannot be ignored. Substantive law and procedural law are not mechanical but dynamic.
(2) the purpose view of criminal proceedings
Chen Guangzhong advocates the right-based view of law, and criminal proceedings should also be based on rights as a whole. In the final analysis, fighting crime is to safeguard human rights. However, the direct purpose of criminal proceedings should be the combination of punishing crimes and protecting human rights. In a narrow sense, the connotation of human rights protection in criminal proceedings should refer to the protection of litigation rights of participants, especially parties. Criminal suspects and defendants are in a weak position in criminal proceedings, and their rights should be the focus of protection. Traditionally, China has paid more attention to cracking down on crimes than protecting human rights, so it is necessary to combine punishing crimes with protecting human rights, and to focus on protecting human rights. "Protection of human rights" should be included in the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law. At the same time, he believes that emphasizing the protection of human rights does not mean giving up the value pursuit of punishing crimes, but advocates strengthening the protection of human rights while preventing weakening the fight against crimes, and strengthening the protection of the rights of criminal suspects and defendants while strengthening the protection of the rights of other litigation participants such as victims.
(3) View of Criminal Procedure Structure
Chen Guangzhong believes that only a scientific and reasonable criminal procedure structure can guarantee the realization of judicial justice, and the modern criminal procedure structure ruled by law should implement the principle of separation of prosecution and trial, equal adversary, and the judge's judgment in the middle. He advocated that criminal proceedings in China should include two triangular structures: one is the big triangular structure in which equal adversary and the judge judge in the middle during the trial stage. The other is a tripartite structure composed of investigation organs, criminal suspects and neutral adjudicators who approve arrests and review prosecutions in the pre-trial stage.
In addition, he also believes that the two litigation structures, authoritarianism and adversary system, have their own advantages and disadvantages, and the proper combination of them is most conducive to achieving the purpose of China's criminal litigation. We should absorb the advantages of the two western litigation structures to reform China's criminal litigation structure. The structure of criminal procedure in China is similar to the authoritarianism of civil law system, so we should absorb some practices of adversary system properly, but at the same time we can't copy them completely, and we should maintain the limited initiative of judges in trial.
(4) the concept of efficiency of criminal proceedings
On the relationship between judicial justice and litigation efficiency, Chen Guangzhong advocates "justice first, giving consideration to efficiency". He believes that justice is at the core of the value of criminal proceedings, because the fundamental purpose of criminal proceedings is to ensure the realization of social fairness and justice, specifically, to find out the case through due process, punish crimes, protect human rights, and solve the contradictions between the state and the defendant, the victim and the defendant in a peaceful and non-self-help way, so as to restore the social order destroyed by criminal acts. Of course, the priority of justice is not absolute. Under certain circumstances, for the sake of efficiency, we have to make appropriate sacrifices to the value of justice, but such sacrifices should not be excessive, otherwise it will violate the basic requirements of justice. (1) the view of litigation truth combining objective truth with legal truth
Chen Guangzhong believes that dialectical materialism epistemology and axiology are the theoretical basis of our criminal evidence system. He doesn't agree to deny that epistemology plays a guiding role in the evidence system. He believes that the purpose of criminal litigation proof is to find out the truth of the case and achieve the objective truth of the lawsuit, that is, the subjective understanding of judicial personnel tries to conform to the objective facts of the case. He advocates the combination of objective truth and legal truth. Due to the complexity of litigation proof and the diversity of litigation value pursuit, criminal proof should not only apply a unified standard of proof, but also be hierarchical, such as the application of presumption, so the principle of legal truth must be applied. However, if legal truth is not combined with objective truth, it will inevitably lead to subjectivism to varying degrees.
(2) The principle of evidence adjudication
The principle of evidence adjudication is a principle that must be followed when determining criminal facts in modern countries ruled by law. The evolution history of litigation proof mode should not be centered on the European continent, but should be extended to the world, which can be divided into three stages: divine judgment, confession judgment and evidence judgment. The principle of evidence adjudication requires that evidence other than confession be the main basis for determining the facts of a case. Evidence must be objective, relevant and admissible. The standard of proof of conviction is "the facts are clear and the evidence is sufficient", which is the standard of combining subjective and objective, in which "the facts are clear" is the subjective standard and "the evidence is sufficient" is the objective standard. The newly added standard of "excluding reasonable doubt" in the Criminal Procedure Law takes it as a key condition for sufficient evidence. But we can't copy the western explanation of "close to certainty" or "95%" for excluding reasonable doubt. The main facts of the case should reach the conclusion uniqueness, so as to prevent the occurrence of unjust cases.
(3) Theory of Criminal Proof
Chen Guangzhong argues that proof in criminal proceedings in China, in a broad sense, should refer to the activities of public security and judicial organs and parties as well as their entrusted defenders and agents to collect and use evidence to identify the facts of criminal cases. Regarding the burden of proof, he advocates distinguishing between the burden of proof and the burden of duty proof. The burden of proof means that both the prosecution and the defense bear the responsibility of presenting evidence to prove their claims in the court trial stage. The duty of proof refers to the requirement that the public security and judicial organs should meet in the litigation proof based on their duties, that is, they must have the responsibility of proving the facts of the crime when making a guilty decision on the criminal suspect and defendant, and it is to solve the relationship between the state special organs and the criminal suspect and defendant when investigating the crime.
(4) Perfection of principles and rules of criminal evidence
Chen Guangzhong advocates that in order to realize scientific, legal and humanized evidence system, according to the relevant provisions of international human rights and referring to foreign evidence laws, the following principles and rules should be established: presumption of innocence, no forced self-incrimination, illegal evidence exclusion rule, witness's privilege of refusing to testify, hearsay evidence rule and so on. He argued that there is no doubt, and that a lighter suspicion is essentially a presumption of guilt and an important cause of unjust, false and wrong cases. In 1996, the Criminal Procedure Law was amended, adding an important provision that insufficient evidence should be treated as innocent, which was related to Chen Guangzhong's efforts. As for the exclusionary rule of illegal evidence, Chen Guangzhong advocates the establishment of relative exclusionary rule of illegal evidence, that is, all confessions obtained by torture are excluded and have no evidence effect; Because of its irreplaceable nature, physical evidence should adopt the principle of discretionary exclusion, that is, it should be considered comprehensively according to the degree of illegality, the nature of the case, the protection of public welfare and other factors, which has certain flexibility. On the burden of proof and standard of proof for excluding illegal evidence, when the criminal suspect, the defendant, his legal representative and defender think that the evidence accused of a crime is illegally obtained and put forward relevant clues, the investigation organ and the procuratorial organ should provide evidence to prove that it is legally obtained, and the standard of proof is indeed sufficient, at least to achieve obvious advantages of evidence. (1) strengthening the protection of the rights of the defendant
Chen Guangzhong believes that at present, extorting a confession by torture is the biggest procedural injustice, and wronging the innocent is the biggest substantive injustice. In order to curb extorting confessions by torture, Chen Guangzhong advocated expanding the interpretation scope of torture, that is, torture not only refers to physical violence, but also includes mental torture; Realize the neutrality of the detention center, and make video or audio recording of the whole process; Give criminal suspects and defendants the relative right to remain silent.
(2) Improve the defense system
Chen Guangzhong has always believed that the defense system is an important symbol of whether a country's judicial system is democratic, legal and civilized. In 1955, in his first paper published in Research on Politics and Law, he advocated the establishment of a defense system in New China by introducing the defense system of the Soviet Union. Later, in the two revised drafts of the Criminal Procedure Law and published articles, he urged the continuous improvement of the defense system. For example, lawyers should participate as defenders in the investigation stage, meet with criminal suspects without being monitored, and have the right to collect evidence. He was one of the earliest scholars who advocated the establishment of legal aid system in China. He believes that the legal aid system should be implemented throughout the case that may be sentenced to life imprisonment or death penalty.
(3) Strengthening the protection of victims' rights
As early as the mid-1981s, Chen Guangzhong proposed to strengthen the protection of victims' human rights. In the last revision of the Criminal Procedure Law, he advocated expanding the rights of the victims while strengthening the rights of the defendants. With the concerted efforts of the legislature and scholars, the Criminal Procedure Law revised in 1996 listed the victim as one of the parties, giving him the right to apply for withdrawal and the right to request the people's procuratorate to protest, thus strengthening the protection of the victims' rights. At present, he also advocates the formulation of new laws and the establishment of a victim assistance system.
(4) Perfection of investigation means of corruption crimes
Chen Guangzhong believes that in the investigation of corruption crimes in China, the ability of procuratorial organs to obtain evidence is limited, and it is difficult to effectively crack down on corruption crimes. Article 51, paragraph 1, of the United Nations Convention against Corruption clearly stipulates that special investigation methods such as controlled delivery, secret service and electronic or other forms of interception can be used in the investigation of corruption crimes. However, China's 1996 Criminal Procedure Law does not make any provisions on these means. Therefore, he suggested that the revision of the Criminal Procedure Law should give the anti-corruption investigation department of the procuratorial organ the power to use special investigation methods. When the Criminal Procedure Law was revised again in 2112, this suggestion was absorbed and special investigation methods were included in the scope of the Criminal Procedure Law. At the same time, he particularly emphasized that while strengthening the ability of criminal investigation, it is also necessary to strengthen the restriction on the power of procuratorial organs.
(5) Further improvement of the procedure of second instance
Chen Guangzhong believes that the procedure of criminal second instance in China has played an important role in punishing crimes and protecting human rights, but its functions in rights relief and ensuring justice have not been fully exerted. The revision of the Criminal Procedure Law in 1996 was obviously insufficient for the reform of the trial of second instance. In order to give full play to the function of the second instance procedure, the revision of the criminal procedure law should adhere to the principle of comprehensive review, expand the scope of trial, improve the principle of no additional punishment on appeal, reform the system of remanding for retrial and create the system of reconciliation between the parties. Only in this way can the procedure of criminal second instance be more democratic, legal and scientific.
(6) Perfection of the death penalty review procedure
Chen Guangzhong believes that the death penalty case is a matter of life and death, and the death penalty review procedure is the last procedure, which should be further improved in the direction of litigation: First, the judge should interrogate the defendant; Second, there must be a defender to participate. If the defendant and his close relatives have not hired a defense lawyer, they should appoint lawyers from legal aid institutions to participate. Third, the important evidence disputed by the prosecution and the defense should be carefully verified. If necessary, a private hearing can be held in the local area, and defense lawyers and prosecutors should be notified to be present to cross-examine the sources of verbal evidence such as witnesses and experts, so as to more effectively determine the authenticity of these evidences. The above claims were adopted by the revised Criminal Procedure Law.
(7) Reconstruction of retrial procedure
Chen Guangzhong believes that the traditional concept of our country emphasizes "seeking truth from facts and correcting mistakes" and simply pursues substantive justice, which is one-sided. Modern retrial procedure must combine the concept of res judicata, the rule of prohibiting double jeopardy, the stability of procedure and the correction of wrong judgment, and distinguish between the two situations that are beneficial to the sentenced person and those that are unfavorable to the sentenced person. He believes that in the concept of retrial, we can't just emphasize the finality of the procedure without paying attention to correcting the substantive errors of the effective referee. Especially, the effective referee who is innocent and wrongly convicted should be allowed to appeal at any time. After finding out the truth of the case, it must be rehabilitated and the innocent should be innocent.
(8) Perfecting the criminal procedure for minors
Chen Guangzhong thinks that the original criminal procedure law did not pay enough attention to the characteristics and rights protection of juvenile defendants, and advocates that a special chapter should be set up to set up the juvenile litigation procedure when it is revised, stipulating the policy of "education, probation and salvation" and the principle of "education is the mainstay, punishment is the supplement", and establishing a system of comprehensive investigation, case-by-case handling and professionalization of case handlers; We should implement the system of appointed defense, improve the standard of arrest, establish the system of eliminating criminal stains of minors, and take the lead in proposing the addition of conditional non-prosecution procedures. Most of the above ideas were absorbed by the Criminal Procedure Law of 2112.
(9) Construction of Criminal Reconciliation System
Chen Guangzhong believes that in recent years, under the background of building a harmonious socialist society, the concept of criminal reconciliation has become a * * * knowledge in theoretical and practical circles. The substantive departments have accumulated a lot of valuable experience by carrying out pilot projects. The system of criminal reconciliation embodies the traditional harmonious culture of "harmony is the most important" in China, which can effectively solve all kinds of disputes and contradictions brought about by criminal offences, promote the victim's procedural subject status and improve litigation efficiency. Criminal reconciliation should run through the whole process of criminal proceedings of investigation, prosecution, trial and execution. At the same time, it should be standardized to maximize its function and minimize its disadvantages. For example, to prevent the victims from asking exorbitant prices and indulging in crimes or punishing them lightly.
(11) Establishment of criminal compensation system
As early as the mid-1981s, Professor Chen Guangzhong took the lead in paying attention to and advocating the establishment of criminal compensation system in China. He pointed out that in order to further develop socialist democracy and improve the socialist legal system, a criminal compensation system should be established as soon as possible, so as to concretize the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the General Principles of Civil Law and protect the legitimate rights and interests of citizens. He suggested that the conditions for enjoying the right to claim criminal compensation should include wrong detention and wrong judgment, and the wrong judgment should be limited to innocent and false judgment. Regarding the scope and standard of compensation, he believes that when establishing a criminal compensation system in China, economic losses should be the main compensation, and the compensation should be paid by the state treasury. He also suggested that in the process of law enforcement, judicial personnel should bear civil liability in addition to administrative liability, if they take revenge or neglect their duties, resulting in wrong detention and infringing on citizens' legitimate rights and interests. Most of these suggestions were later absorbed by the State Compensation Law passed in 1994. After more than ten years, according to the development of the rule of law, the legislature initiated the revision of the State Compensation Law. Chen Guangzhong actively participated in the forum on revision, and published papers in authoritative journals, putting forward systematic suggestions on how to reform the criminal compensation system, many of which were absorbed by the amendment of the State Compensation Law adopted in 2111. (1) Connection with the United Nations criminal justice standards
In the research of the United Nations judicial standards, Chen Guangzhong took the lead in keenly recognizing the importance of this issue, and its research is in a leading position in China. In 1998, Chen Guangzhong cooperated with the Canadian International Center for Criminal Law Reform and Policy to publish the book "United Nations Criminal Justice Standards and China Criminal Legal System", which is the earliest monograph in China devoted to the implementation of United Nations criminal justice standards in China. In his view, the United Nations human rights norms are summarized from the requirements of human society, and we should respect them. For international treaties that China has concluded or acceded to, we should strictly abide by them and avoid obvious disharmony with them. He believes that at present, China's criminal law has made great progress in protecting human rights and should be based on this.