Under the joint planning of the Inner Mongolia Branch of the National Prosecutors College and the Northwest University of Political Science and Law, the training course for prosecutors and lawyers with the theme of “Criminal Evidence Practice and Court Trial Skills” was successfully concluded in Hohhot from March 23rd to 29th. Mr. Tian Wenchang, Mr. Liang Yali and Mr. Men Jinling participated in the training course and gave lectures to 100 participants.
In November 2024, under the initiative of Tian Wenchang, a famous criminal defense lawyer, and upon the instruction of Li Yongjun, the Procurator General, the first practical training course for prosecutors and lawyers in the whole region was launched.
Participants covering the region's 12 alliance cities, attracting 120 criminal prosecution business backbone and outstanding lawyer representatives. Through the combination of thematic lectures and practical exercises mode, promote the construction of legal professional community to a new level. Li Yongjun, Secretary of the Party Group and Procurator General of the Procuratorate of the Autonomous Region, paid full attention to the progress of the training and personally observed the teaching site, and gave affirmation to the curriculum.
Innovative Mode
Authoritative Teachers + Practical Empowerment
On March 24, 2025, Mr. Tian Wenchang gave a nearly two-and-a-half-hour keynote speech for the training course of Inner Mongolia Procuratorate, titled “Reasons for Prosecution of Non-Conviction Cases and Focuses of Trial Arguments from Lawyers' Perspectives - Talking about the Function of Law”.
By sorting out the relationship between the origin of law and justice, Lawyer Tian Wenchang firstly emphasized that the function of law is to maintain social order, and the essence of law is order rather than justice. Then he pointed out that justice is a means to maintain order, and the law realizes the ultimate goal of maintaining order through judicial justice.
Specifically to the trial activities, Tian Wenchang lawyer believes that the purpose of the court trial is justice, and find out the truth is to realize the means of justice, the relationship between the means and the end can not be confused. He further analyzed that the meaning of the truth includes objective truth and legal truth, in the case of objective truth in doubt, can only be based on the legal truth to reflect the justice, so, based on the fact is based on evidence. He said that the court hearing through the truth to achieve justice, through the realization of justice to achieve the purpose of maintaining social order, the truth - to achieve justice - to maintain order, which is the means and ends of the progressive relationship.
On how to achieve justice, Tian Wenchang first emphasized the justice is based on legal reality, and then pointed out that the way to find out the legal reality is the prosecution, defense and trial of the three parties to constrain each other. Mr. Tian Wenchang further analyzed the classification of non-conviction cases by comparing the evidence standards of the three stages of prosecution, defense and trial, and made an in-depth analysis of the reasons.
Mr. Tian Wenchang emphasized that the prosecution and the defense should perform their duties with procedural propriety as the guideline rather than sticking to the results of individual cases, and that procedural justice has independent value in the case of doubtful cases that cannot be ruled out. In reality, some of the more controversial cases of doubtful crimes, the prosecution such as direct non-prosecution will sometimes be difficult to convince the public, and after prosecution after prosecution, defense and trial of the three parties to participate in the trial is not convicted, to negotiate is the full embodiment of procedural justice. Therefore, 5-10% of the prosecution is not convicted of space, should be in line with the law of litigation phenomenon.
Tian Wenchang also combined with a large number of vivid typical cases in practice, analyzed and argued the prosecution of non-conviction cases of various types and specific reasons, and pointed out that these reasons and the judicial concept of the deep connection.
Finally, from the entity of the defense and procedural defense of the focus of the court.
Mr. Tian Wenchang's speech starts from the function and essence of law, then points to the purpose of trial, procedural justice and prosecution-defense relationship, until the focus of trial defense. Combining cases, analyzing concepts, peeling off layers, and going deeper and deeper, it provides a brand new perspective to understand the reasons for prosecution of non-conviction cases and the focus of the courtroom defense, which is of great significance to promote the construction of the rule of law.
The design of the practical training course is problem-oriented, covering 8 practical training contents such as rules of court questioning, confession questioning, etc. It adopts the three-dimensional teaching mode of “thematic lecture + confrontation exercise” for the weak links in criminal prosecution work such as examination of evidence and public prosecution in court. Prof. Liu Renqi, Ms. Liang Yali, Ms. Men Jinling, and Mr. Mao Lixin coached the students on court questioning in the practical training class.
The course invited prosecutors, lawyers, scholars tripartite faculty, Tian Wenchang, lawyer from the “prosecution of non-conviction cases” into the analysis of the focus of the courtroom defense; Northwest University of Political Science and Law Professor Liu Renqi, King&Capital Law Firm, Liang Yali, Men Jinling lawyers, Mao Lixin, director of the Beijing Shangquan Law Firm, the Autonomous Region Prosecutor's Office of Wu Qiong, Wu Yuran, Wang Guanyi, and so on, through the “confrontation-repetition”. Through the “confrontation-review-improvement” closed-loop training, it promotes the prosecution and lawyers to think differently. In the practical training exercises, the use of “clinic education” model, combined with the “court investigation protocol” design simulation case, around the defendant, witnesses, victims, experts, four types of objects of the questioning and cross-examination, by the lawyers and prosecutors group confrontation, the restoration of the real trial scene, the trainees to complete the whole process from the questioning to the cross-examination of the operation, to strengthen the practical skills. The students completed the whole process of operation from questioning to cross-examination to strengthen the practical skills. Hohhot City Procuratorate forensic Pang Tong in the identification of opinions, through the identification of skull injury and other examples, demonstration of “non-professionals how to find identification of loopholes”, the students called “subversion of cognition”.
Participants' reactions
Satisfaction exceeds expectations and calls for regularization
During the training period, the trainees' participation was extremely high, attracting a large number of spectators. Satisfaction surveys showed that 98% of the trainees believed that the practical training courses were highly relevant and effective in improving their courtroom skills; a number of prosecutors gave feedback that the questioning skills of the lawyers had inspired the optimization of public prosecution strategies; and lawyers' representatives lamented that they had gained a more in-depth understanding of the evidentiary standards for prosecutorial cases.
After the training, also held a “legal professional community” as the theme of the party day activities, through the poetry recitation, three lines and other programs, showing the lively atmosphere of the prosecution and law collaboration.
It is reported that this training is the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Procuratorate high quality and effective handling of each case of practical exploration, the future of the department will continue to optimize the practical training, and promote the formation of the 'confrontation in the cooperation, cooperation and win-win' rule of law ecology. At the same time, the Autonomous Region Procuratorate will incorporate this type of training into its annual regularization program, providing “Inner Mongolia Sample” for the practical education and training of the national procuratorial system.
