In recent years, with the gradual increase of foreign-related criminal cases, coinciding with the revision of the Criminal Procedure Law was included in the 14th National People's Congress Standing Committee legislative planning, whether to set up a special chapter in the Criminal Procedure Law relating to foreigners triggered extensive discussions in the legal profession. “was held in Beijing. The purpose of the seminar is to promote the connection between the relevant provisions of foreign-related criminal procedures, including international criminal judicial assistance, and the Criminal Procedure Law, and to contribute to the establishment and improvement of foreign-related rule of law.
“Roundtable Discussion on the Establishment of a Special Chapter on Foreign-related Criminal Procedures in the Revision of the Criminal Procedure Law
Fan Chongyi, Honorary Dean of the Institute of Litigation Law of China University of Political Science and Law, Tian Wenchang, Advisor of Criminal Committee of All China Lawyers Association and Honorary Director of King&Capital Law Firm, Zhang Xiaoming, Visiting Professor of Law School of Renmin University of China, Zhang Xutao, Director of the Management Committee of Guoco Law Firm, Wang Zaikui, Senior Partner of King&Capital Law Firm, Men Jinling, Associate Professor of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and part-time attorney of King&Capital Law Firm, are in the process of discussing the issue of establishing a special chapter on foreign-related criminal procedure law. Jingling Men, associate professor of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and part-time lawyer of King&Capital Law Firm, and Xinlong Wang, senior partner of Beijing King&Capital Law Firm, participated in the meeting and made speeches and shared topics around the aforementioned issues.
Wang Xinlong, Senior Partner of Beijing King&Capital Law Firm, moderated the seminar.
Wang Xintong, a senior partner of Beijing King&Capital Law Firm, has worked in the Special Criminal Tribunal for Lebanon, the Special Criminal Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and has many years of experience in handling foreign-related cases. At the beginning of the seminar, she said that with the gradual increase in the number of foreign-related criminal cases, the importance of building a foreign-related rule of law system has become more and more prominent. However, the current Criminal Procedure Law has fewer provisions on foreign criminal proceedings, and the relevant provisions are mainly reflected in the judicial interpretation, departmental rules and China International Criminal Mutual Legal Assistance Law, which are fragmented and difficult to meet the practical needs. Wang Xintong lawyers believe that the current practice of foreign-related criminal proceedings are still facing a lot of challenges, such as time limit, the defense of the extraterritorial investigation and evidence collection difficulties, jurisdiction disputes and other issues, “we can consider the foreign-related criminal proceedings in the Criminal Procedure Law of the Fifth Part of the Special Procedures of this part, the establishment of a foreign criminal proceedings of the special chapter, ”I hope that the experts and scholars present here, the relevant provisions are less. “We hope that the experts and scholars here will combine their own work experience to provide some practical experience and insights for the lawyers' colleagues who are deeply engaged in the field of foreign-related matters, which will in turn draw the attention of more practitioners and scholars.
Fan Chongyi, Honorary Dean of the Institute of Litigation Law, China University of Political Science and Law, spoke.
“How to use the standards, concepts and understanding of judicial modernization to look at the foreign-related order and how to strengthen the foreign-related legal system, we have to use the modernization standards to look at the foreign-related litigation procedures, and to further improve the concepts and standards of the revision of the law.” Fan Chongyi, Honorary Dean of the Institute of Litigation Law of China University of Political Science and Law, believes that no matter from the international standards, from the situation of our national development, from the structure of the existing law, we need to strengthen the foreign-related procedures, and the current Criminal Procedure Law in the foreign-related litigation procedures are relatively blank, the Criminal Procedure Law should be amended to set up a separate special part on the criminal procedure of foreign criminal proceedings, and to clarify the basic principles of the handling of criminal cases involving foreign countries and the specific provisions, to take into account in the national sovereignty of the country, the basic principles of criminal cases involving foreigners. The revision of the Criminal Procedure Law should set up a separate special part on foreign-related criminal procedure, clarify the basic principles and specific regulations on foreign-related criminal cases, and consider respecting China's international treaty obligations under the principle of national sovereignty, so as to effectively safeguard the litigation rights of all parties.
Speech by Mr. Tian Wenchang, Advisor of Criminal Committee of All-China Lawyers Association and Honorary Director of Beijing King&Capital Law Firm
The increase in the number and sensitivity of foreign-related cases has also put forward objective requirements for making special provisions in the criminal procedure law for foreign-related criminal cases. Tian Wenchang, consultant of the Criminal Professional Committee of the All-China Lawyers Association and honorary director of Beijing King&Capital Law Firm, also emphasized the importance of combining theory and practice, and believed that the role of individual cases to promote legislation should be given full play in handling cases. Strengthen the legal regulation of foreign-related criminal cases, is the lawyer handling cases in the process of practice of personal feelings. He said, foreign-related criminal cases have certain special characteristics, no clear provisions will rely on opaque rules, triggering outside non-compliance and suspicion. At the same time, it should also be noted that special is not the same as privilege, not only to protect the parties involved in foreign-related cases have internationally recognized rights, but also reflect the equality of the rights of Chinese citizens and foreign citizens in criminal proceedings. This is also an issue worth studying.
Zhang Xiaoming, Visiting Professor, School of Law, Renmin University of China, speaking
“The trend of our foreign-related criminal offenses is exceptionally severe.” Zhang Xiaoming, a visiting professor at the School of Law of Renmin University of China, used to work in the relevant departments and has profound knowledge and practical experience in foreign-related criminal work. He is in favor of setting up a special part on foreign-related criminal cases in the Criminal Procedure Law, which requires the organs engaged in the investigation, prosecution, adjudication, and execution of penalties of criminal cases related to foreign countries to carry out their work in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Law. He suggests that the special part should be well connected with the principles and purposes stipulated in the Constitution, with bilateral and multilateral international treaties and conventions that have already entered into force, with our existing major criminal laws, and with other criminal laws that have already entered into force.
Speech by Mr. Zhang Xutao, Director of the Management Committee of Grandall Legal (Dalian) Law Firm
Mr. Zhang Xutao, Director of the Management Committee of Grandall Legal (Dalian) Law Firm, shared his experience with the foreign-related cases he has handled. He said that with the large number of enterprises going overseas and the state encourages overseas investment, transnational economic crimes such as money laundering, fraud and other issues are becoming increasingly rampant, causing concern. In addition to the discussion of extraterritorial evidence admissibility standards and other issues, he also real cases, focusing on the handling of foreign cases, the rights of defense lawyers to protect the rights of extraterritorial evidence, the rights of lawyers and the docking of the law of international judicial assistance in criminal matters, as well as the revision of the Criminal Procedure Law should be considered in a comprehensive manner to deal with foreign cases of prosecution and defense of the issue of equality of arms, which should be given particular attention to, and at the same time, he also emphasized the importance of translation accuracy in foreign cases, and suggested that foreign cases should be handled with a more accurate translation. At the same time, he also emphasized the importance of translation accuracy in foreign-related cases, suggesting that consideration should be given to strengthening the joint training of legal and foreign language professionals and improving the quality of translation.
Mr. Men Jinling, Associate Professor of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences University and Part-time Lawyer of Beijing King&Capital Law Firm, made a speech.
“The establishment of a special section on foreign-related amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law should provide a strict definition of the concept of 'foreign-related' and explore its feasibility.” Men Jinling, an associate professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a part-time lawyer at Beijing King&Capital Law Firm, said that the special chapter should be positioned on foreign-related matters related to judicial assistance. The foreign-related chapters of the criminal procedure laws of developed countries also focus on mutual legal assistance based on the international conventions and treaties in which they participate. Judicial power, especially criminal judicial power, is part of national sovereignty, whether it is extraterritorial evidence collection, or extraterritorial arrest, transfer, seizure, all involve sovereignty issues, need to be based on international conventions or treaties concluded by the two countries for mutual legal assistance. In addition to mutual legal assistance, in criminal cases against “foreigners” suspected of committing crimes, the right to meet with relatives, the right to the presence of lawyers and other issues, I am afraid that it is not appropriate to make special provisions in the foreign-related chapter, after all, “special” is not the same as “privilege”. After all, “special” is not the same as “privilege”. For non-judicial assistance channels, the defendant obtained in extraterritorial defense evidence in the defendant's favor, the review of its judgment and determination, it is also not appropriate to provide in the foreign chapter, our country's criminal procedure law on the admission of evidence of the general provisions of the evidence can be fully satisfied with the determination of this type of evidence. Because for the defendant, and the public power to obtain evidence of the alleged crime is different, the determination of defense evidence is not subject to the legality of the means of obtaining or not. In addition, the enactment of a special chapter on foreign affairs needs to guarantee that lawyers have the right to obtain the right to initiate judicial assistance provided by the state when filing an application for access to extraterritorial evidence, and legislators should carefully consider how to improve the relevant legal provisions.
Speech by Mr. Wang Zaikui, Senior Partner of Beijing King&Capital Law Firm
Wang Zaikui, Senior Partner of Beijing King&Capital Law Firm, said in his roundtable speech that the Criminal Procedure Law should take into consideration the special characteristics of foreign-related cases in terms of the trial limitation, so as to alleviate the pressure of the case-handling authorities, and at the same time, it should conduct an in-depth study on issues such as the detention procedure, the lawyer's procedure of obtaining evidence abroad, and the validity of international treaties, etc., and also hire and equip professional interpreters in order to avoid the situation where the translation problem affects the conviction and sentence. The situation.
On that day, more than 2,000 people watched the seminar online and offline. It is reported that the relevant arguments and opinions of this seminar will be comprehensively organized and discussed in depth, and will eventually be published as part of the revision proposals of the Criminal Procedure Law, which will be collected and published in the monograph of “Judicial Modernization and Revision of the Criminal Procedure Law” of the China University of Political Science and Law edited by Mr. Fan Chongyi for the reference of the legislature.
