Are there any differences between the jury system in Hong Kong and that in the Mainland? If so, what are the differences? Yes, the jury system is a system in which ordinary citizens are invited to par

Are there any differences between the jury system in Hong Kong and that in the Mainland? If so, what are the differences? Yes, the jury system is a system in which ordinary citizens are invited to participate by national judicial organs when hearing criminal and civil cases. Its purpose is to expand judicial democracy, supervise judicial activities, and maintain judicial fairness. Therefore, the jury system is favored by many countries and has developed around the world. From a global perspective, there are two main forms of jury systems, namely the jury system in common law countries and the participating trial system in civil law countries. Due to the different legal cultures and litigation models of the two major legal systems, the roles played by these two forms of jury systems are also very different, which is thought-provoking. The jury system first emerged in the jury court of Athens, an ancient Greek city-state. Its jurors were drawn by lot from slaveholders and citizens with civil rights, and the verdict of the jury court was determined by a vote of the jurors. The jury system in the modern sense originated in England. During the Middle Ages, a method of making judgments by questioning sworn witnesses emerged in the Frankish Kingdom. This method of adjudication was introduced to England with the Norman rule. In 1364, Henry II issued an edict stipulating that when hearing land dispute cases, the circuit judges of the Royal Court should select 12 knowledgeable witnesses from local knights and freemen to testify under oath to the court as the basis for the court's judgment. These 12 witnesses Witnesses are actually jurors. At the end of the 12th century, grand juries emerged in England, responsible for determining whether a defendant was suspected of a crime before a trial and whether to prosecute him in court. By the 13th century, petit juries actually existed, determining the guilt or innocence of a defendant based on the facts of a trial. Hong Kong was once a British colony, and its legal system basically inherited the British legal system, and the jury system is no exception. After Hong Kong's return to the motherland, Hong Kong's common law system remained unchanged according to the Basic Law, and the jury system was also retained. Therefore, the jury system continues to be implemented in Hong Kong courts. After more than a hundred years of judicial practice, Hong Kong has formed a unique jury system. (The Hong Kong Jury Ordinance Ordinance) stipulates that all Hong Kong residents aged between 21 and 65 years old must be mentally healthy Everyone who is able-bodied and not deaf, deaf, blind, or has any other disability is legally responsible to serve on a jury. Unless the law expressly provides for it, no juror shall be exempted from serving as a juror, otherwise he will bear legal responsibility. People who are expressly exempted from jury service by law are generally those who hold public office or engage in certain special professions, such as members of the Executive Council, Legislative Council members, senior civil servants, practicing lawyers, registered doctors, newspaper editors and clerks, etc. Since their occupations are closely related to the interests of the public, the purpose of exempting them from jury service is to prevent the jury from interfering with their work. , thus affecting the interests of the public. One of the prerequisites for establishing a jury is to establish a jury list. The first step in establishing the jury list is to establish a temporary jury list. According to the Hong Kong Jury Ordinance, the Registrar of the High Court, through the jury office established by the Immigration Department, usually selects persons who are qualified to serve on juries from those who have applied for identity cards or travel documents from the Immigration Department. persons, or the Registrar of the High Court and the Registrar of Persons may obtain information from relevant parties to determine the provisional list of jurors who meet statutory qualifications and are not statutory exemptions. Provisional list of jurors who are qualified to serve as jurors but are not exempt. Once the provisional list is finalized, the Registrar will issue notices to the identified persons informing them that they have been listed as jurors. If a person who has received a notice believes that he or she does not meet the requirements or conditions for jury service or that he or she has been excused from jury service, he or she may object within a specified period determined by the Registrar. The Permanent Judicial Magistrate must publish the provisional list of jurors in the newspapers before 1 October of every other year and issue to the relevant persons a list of persons who may object to the list, and no later than 1 February of the following year. The list is published in the Government Gazette and becomes effective 15 days after publication. ((bb)) The composition and application of a jury panel requires that Hong Kong laws and regulations stipulate that before a jury panel is selected, it must be composed first. Jury panel panel. A jury panel is an organization that waits for a jury trial on a certain case for a period of time. The jury panel shall be composed of jurors selected by the Judicial Registrar from the published list of jurors by drawing lots or other random selection methods, and their number shall be determined according to the instructions of the judge. Once the jury panel is determined, the Registrar shall, at the direction of the judge, divide the panel members into equal groups, and the members of each group shall serve as jurors for such period as the judge directs. Jurors for a case are selected by drawing lots from the jury pool in open court by the Registrar or Clerk of the Court. Once the jurors are selected, they take their seats in the jury box. However, during this process, both the plaintiff and the defendant have the right to challenge the jurors who are about to be seated and exclude them from the jury. In particular, the law gives the defendant the right to object to the seating of at least five jurors without giving any reason. Obviously, the defendant has more opportunities to choose the composition of the jury. According to Section 3 of the Hong Kong Jury Ordinance, a jury to hear individual cases usually consists of seven persons, but if necessary, the court may require the establishment of a nine-member jury. If a jury dies or is disbanded in accordance with the law during the trial of a case, the jury will still be valid as long as the number of the jury is not reduced to less than five people. In the event of an insufficient number of jurors, the court may, at the request of any party to the proceedings, select a sufficient number of suitable persons to serve as jurors from observers or other persons from whom a jury can be expeditiously formed to fill the juror quota. It can be seen from the above that the composition of Hong Kong's jury is very random, which reflects judicial democracy to a certain extent. In particular, giving both the plaintiff and the defendant the right to raise objections to jurors reflects the fairness of the jury composition and, to a certain extent, prays for the maintenance of judicial fairness. However, the use of juries will increase litigation costs and reduce litigation efficiency. Therefore, the use of juries in Hong Kong is very limited. Jury trials only apply to major criminal cases in the Court of First Instance of the High Court, such as murder, robbery, drug and other crimes, as well as coroner's inquests. Jury trials do not apply to civil and criminal cases heard in other courts. (iii) Jury deliberations and rulings Hong Kong law stipulates that before performing their jury duties, a jury must take an oath or make a statement that it will make a true ruling. Throughout the trial, the jury will carefully listen to the evidence of both the prosecution and the defense. After both parties make their final statements, the jury will discuss the facts and make a verdict based on legal principles under the prompts of the judge. During the case deliberations, the jury is isolated from the outside world to ensure that the jury is not disturbed by the outside world and makes a true verdict with a natural and fair mentality. After deliberating the case, the jury makes a verdict on the facts of the case based on the majority decision rule. There are two specific situations: 1. If the jury consists of 7 people, the verdict must be made by a majority of no less than 5 people; if the jury is reduced to 6 people for some reason, the verdict must be made by a majority of no less than 5 people. rendered; if reduced to five, the verdict must be unanimously rendered by all jurors. 2. If the jury consists of nine persons, the verdict must be rendered by a majority of not less than seven persons; if the jury is reduced to eight persons for any reason, the verdict must be rendered by a majority of not less than six persons; if reduced to If the jury is reduced to six or seven persons, the verdict must be rendered by a majority of not less than five persons; if the jury is reduced to five persons, the verdict of the jury must be unanimously rendered by all jurors. (d) Career protection for jurors Hong Kong laws stipulate that any person who serves as a juror is entitled to receive statutory allowances to make up for his economic losses while serving as a juror. This provision is also conducive to mobilizing citizens to serve as jurors and providing material support for the jury system. In addition, Hong Kong laws also stipulate that an employer may not discriminate against an employee who serves as a juror, nor may he fire or threaten to fire an employee on the grounds that the employee has served or is currently serving as a juror. Failure to do so commits a crime and is punishable by a fine of HK$25,000 and imprisonment for three months. Anyone who serves as a juror must also perform their legal duties. Any juror who has been issued with a notice to attend court and is absent, or who has attended court but fails to appear when summoned, or who after attending the juror withdraws without the permission of the judge, may without reasonable excuse be charged with contempt of court. The people's jury system in the mainland is a jury method in which people's assessors participate in trials, which was established by the people's political power in the base area in accordance with the needs of the revolutionary struggle during China's Civil Revolutionary War and following the original Soviet-Russian jury model. Compared with Hong Kong's jury system, the mainland's jury system has the following characteristics: (a) The method of selecting jurors is different. People's jurors in the mainland are elected. According to Article 38 of the "Organic Law of the People's Courts", any citizen who is 23 years of age or older, who enjoys the right to vote and the right to be elected in the Mainland, and who has not been deprived of political rights in accordance with the law, can be elected as a people's assessor. Although this form of universal suffrage embodies broad democracy, it lacks effective institutional guarantees and is often a mere formality in practice. In particular, elected jurors form a collegial panel to hear cases together with court judges (judges) in their personal capacity. The members of the collegial panel are appointed by the court. There is no statutory composition procedure and there are many human factors, which affects the objectivity and fairness of the trial organization and judicial impartiality. In contrast, the qualifications of Hong Kong jurors and the determination of the jury list are clearly stipulated by law. The jury for each case is also selected by drawing lots in court by the Registrar, and the judge has no power to appoint. This method of selecting jurors tries to avoid the influence of human factors and is natural and spontaneous. In particular, Hong Kong law gives both parties to the lawsuit the right to object to jury members, so that the jury selected in this way is more objective and fair for both parties to the lawsuit. (2) The form of jury participation and the different judgment results. As mentioned above, people's jurors participate in the trial organization with judges (judges) as the core in their personal capacity, hear and decide cases in their personal capacity, and therefore do not have any role in litigation. There is an independent and unified jury entity. In this jury format, jurors have the same powers and status as professional judges (judges) on the surface, that is, they have the right to support the trial activities of professional judges and the right to vote on the facts of the case and the application of the law. However, in practice, due to the authoritarian litigation model that was implemented in the mainland, judges have more room for pre-trial activities. For example, judges have the right to collect evidence, question defendants, etc., and judges’ pre-trial activities often determine the verdict of the case. In fact, it is just a formality and is nothing more than a re-exhibition of the judgment that the judge has formed during the process of collecting evidence. Jurors do not participate in pre-trial activities and lack professional training. They inevitably do not rely on the will of professional judges when judging cases, and their voting rights are in name only. In addition, the collegial panel is not isolated from the outside world when reviewing cases. In the long-term litigation process, jurors will inevitably be subject to outside interference, which will affect the fairness of the verdict. In contrast, Hong Kong's jury consists of a certain number of jurors. In litigation, the jury is an independent entity and has the right to make a ruling on the merits of the case. The judge only presides over the proceedings and provides legal services to the jury, and has no right to interfere with the jury's decision. Only after the jury reaches a guilty verdict on the facts of the case can the judge impose a sentence based on that verdict. In Hong Kong, regularity and sentencing are separated, and a constraint is formed between the two, which not only prevents judges from judicial arbitrariness, but also embodies judicial democracy. In particular, jurors are isolated from the outside world when deliberating cases, so that jurors are not disturbed by the outside world and can make judgments based on personal beliefs in a natural state of mind as much as possible, thus ensuring the independence, objectivity and fairness of the jury's judgment. (iii) The scope of application of jury service is different. According to the relevant laws of the Mainland, the scope of application of Mainland jurors is relatively large. All first-instance cases that should be heard together must implement the jury system. Most of the first-instance cases require serving as jurors, which is not allowed in terms of manpower, material resources, and financial resources. Coupled with the above-mentioned shortcomings, the jury system is increasingly ignored by judicial authorities in the mainland and has become an ornament of judicial democracy. In Hong Kong, juries are only applicable to criminal cases heard by the Court of First Instance of the High Court, and their scope of application is relatively narrow. However, because its mechanism is relatively sound and complete, the judicial authorities have long adhered to it and implemented it effectively, making it an indispensable system in Hong Kong's judicial system and playing an important role in embodying judicial democracy and maintaining judicial fairness.