How to be a people's juror

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As a bridge and link between the court and the society, people's jurors not only help to promote judicial democracy, but also help to deepen the society's understanding and trust in judicial justice. What is the current people's jury system in China? What problems do you face? Reporters went to the grass-roots courts in Shandong, Shanxi and Yunnan to investigate the practice of the people's jury system.

Wang Fengxia, People's Juror of Zhangqiu Court, Ji 'nan City

"We are here and the supervision is there."

At first glance, Wang Fengxia, 57, dressed in a black uniform with a sign on his chest, is no different from the court staff.

"This dress and badge are customized by the court, but the judge's badge is round and ours is rectangular." Wang Fengxia explained with a smile and counted with his fingers. He has been a people's juror for nine years. In May 2005, Wang Fengxia and 54 other people from all walks of life became the first batch of people's jurors in Zhangqiu People's Court through a series of procedures, such as recommendation by the unit, investigation by the court, the National People's Congress and the Judicial Bureau, appointment by the Municipal People's Congress, and publicity to the public.

Wang Fengxia used to work in Zhangqiu Women's Federation, whose main job was to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of women and children. Over the years, she has been in and out of court many times, and has also participated in the collegiate bench of many cases. In which case, the method of random selection is generally adopted. The court will notify Wang Fengxia one month in advance and invite her to consult the case file. During the trial, Wang Fengxia should participate in the whole process, sit with the judge, and put forward his own opinions when there is any objection.

From the beginning, Wang Fengxia didn't know how to be a people's juror. Looking back now, she is still a little embarrassed, because she is basically "accompanying without trial." When commenting on a case, she often just agrees with the judge.

Today is different from the past. After years of experience, Wang Fengxia has been "experienced" and participated in jury work in more than 600 cases. What made her feel most fulfilled was that her opinion was adopted by the collegial panel.

In Zhangqiu People's Court, people's jurors have a "home of people's jurors" where they can work and communicate. The court will conduct large-scale centralized training once or twice a year, and there are also some individual trainings at ordinary times.

A few years ago, due to inconvenient transportation and imperfect operation mechanism, the participation rate of people's jurors was once low. But in the past two years, great changes have taken place. In 20 13, Zhangqiu people's court handled 2,500 ordinary procedure cases, and nearly 5,000 people participated in the jury.

Liu Yuqing, president of Zhangqiu People's Court, said that according to the requirements of Shandong Higher People's Court, by the end of this year, the provincial courts should achieve the goal of 30% participation rate of people's jurors in intermediate courts and 80% participation rate of people's jurors in grass-roots courts. "In Zhangqiu People's Court, the participation rate of people's jurors in ordinary procedural cases has reached 100%. We position people's jurors as trial supervision and give full play to their role. It should be said that the original intention of system design has been realized. "

With the increase in the number of people's jurors in the court, Wang Fengxia's chances of being selected will not be as high as in the past, but her workload has not decreased much. After many years of retirement, she became an "office worker" and shared the daily management of people's jurors. "We are not governed by the court, but relatively autonomous, so as to maintain the independence and supervision of the people's jurors."

In order to ensure that people's jurors do their duty, Zhangqiu People's Court specially invited NPC representatives to attend the trial of people's jurors and evaluated the role of people's jurors. People's jurors with low participation rate or violating laws and regulations will be retired by the National People's Congress according to relevant procedures.

"People's jurors are the bridge and link between the court and society. Although they don't wear robes, they represent thousands of people in Qian Qian and can make people feel the fairness and justice of the law. " Wang Fengxia believes that although people's jurors are not members of the legal profession, their greatest advantage lies in their familiarity with society and easy contact with the masses. "We are, supervision is. With this identity, you must be worthy of your conscience! " (Reporter Bian Minde)

Chen Jianyun, People's Juror of Wuhua District Court, Kunming

"Mediation of the jury collegiate panel, do whatever it takes."

"When the jury tried for the first time, it was a robbery. I sat on the trial bench, afraid to look directly at the defendant. I barely spoke during the whole trial. " Speaking of his first juror, Chen Jianyun, a juror of Wuhua District People's Court in Kunming, Yunnan Province, is still fresh in his memory.

Since being appointed as a people's juror in May 2005, Chen Jianyun will be re-elected for two terms. Chen Jianyun is familiar with legal terms such as "subjective aspect of crime", "joint and several liability" and "statutory lighter punishment".

"Work is similar to clerks, service, mediation, jury, collegiate bench, everything." Chen Jianyun introduced, "I participated in handling more than 2,300 cases, with an average of more than one per day."

Chen Jianyun is one of the 22 people's jurors in Wuhua District People's Court. In addition to the people's jurors who are on duty, the Wuhua District People's Court currently has 25 people's jurors who are not on duty. "Because everyone has their own work, it is more troublesome to coordinate the time to participate in the trial of the case. It is often necessary to make an appointment for non-working people's jurors two or three months in advance. " Ye Wei, director of the People's Jury Office of Wuhua District People's Court, told the reporter.

"The special funds for people's jurors in the whole region are 6.5438+0.9 million, plus part of the funds transferred by the central government, which basically just meets the needs of the head fee." Ye Wei said.

The result of low subsidies is that the age structure of people's jurors is aging. "There are no people under the age of 30, the average age is nearly 50 years old, and there are more than a dozen full-time jurors after retirement." Ye Wei said.

"The biggest problem is understanding." Qiao Yang, director of the People's Jury Office of Kunming Intermediate People's Court, said, "Taking financial security as an example, individual counties and districts only have about 6,543,800 yuan per year." Although the Ministry of Finance has issued regulations requiring special funds for people's jurors to be clearly listed in the financial budget, in reality, they are often packaged with other court funds.

"In practice, people's jurors choose not to use it, accompany it without trying, and discuss it together to varying degrees." Qiao Yang told reporters that some courts are reluctant to use it because many part-time jurors are difficult to coordinate their time; Some part-time jurors refused to work for the jury several times in a row, which also led to the court's reluctance to use it again.

According to Qiao Yang, the multiplication of people's jurors is being carried out in Kunming, but it is difficult for some district and county courts to find suitable candidates. "People who have the ability, enthusiasm and want to do it have no time, and retirees who have time may not be competent." Qiao Yang pointed out that some ex-post jurors still regard people's jurors as honors and fail to perform their duties seriously. To this end, Kunming has specially issued regulations requiring people's jurors to participate in at least five cases every year.

"From the original intention of establishing the people's jury system, we do not overemphasize the legal professionalism of jurors. More importantly, we put forward opinions on the trial of the case from the perspective of ordinary people. " Qiao Yang said that every people's juror goes through strict procedures and off-the-job training before taking up his post. "In the training, we emphasize that people's jurors should express their opinions from the perspective of' emotion' and' reason' and don't have to worry too much about the lack of legal professional knowledge."

"Some people's jurors often choose to follow the crowd because they are not confident in their legal knowledge and are afraid that laymen will be laughed at and even affect the trial of cases." Qiao Yang said that in order to give full play to the role of people's jurors, the Intermediate People's Court even stipulated that people's jurors should express their opinions first. "But the implementation is not ideal." (Reporter Yang)

Li Liping, People's Juror of Xinghualing District Court, Taiyuan City

"worthy of the signature on the judgment"

"Jury, jury, how can you call a jury if you don't judge?" Li Liping, a people's juror of Xinghualing District Court in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, believes that "the jury, as its name implies, is to accompany the judge in the trial, and the focus must be on the' trial'."

Li Liping, who is pungent and quick-tongued, is the chairman of the Women's Federation in Dadongguan Street, Xinghualing District. She introduced that in 20 13 years, there were jurors in more than 20 cases, and the judges as her "partners" attached great importance to the opinions of jurors in each case. During the trial, they usually take the initiative to ask her opinions or let her ask questions. After the trial, before sentencing, they will take the initiative to discuss the case with the jurors.

"When training jurors at the end of last year, some people reported that judges did not attach importance to jurors and did not give them the opportunity to speak." Li Liping made no secret of it, "I retorted at the time. I can't blame the judge for not giving you a chance. You should take the initiative to exercise the rights entrusted to you by law and be worthy of the signature on the judgment. "

The juror's rights mentioned by Li Liping are clearly stipulated in the Decision of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) on Perfecting the People's Juror System, which came into effect in May 2005: People's jurors shall enjoy the same rights as judges, except that they shall not serve as presiding judges.

How to achieve equal rights? Lawyer Lin Wei of Jincheng Tongda Law Firm explained, "People's jurors participate in the collegiate bench to hear cases and independently exercise their voting rights in fact finding and law application. Especially when people's jurors and judges disagree, their opinions should be written in the record. When necessary, the people's jurors may ask the collegial panel to submit the case to the president for decision and submit it to the judicial Committee for discussion. "

However, it is inevitable that there is a disconnect between the system provisions and the specific implementation. "Sit on the court, show your face, don't talk, just sign." People who have had litigation experience have ridiculed the working status of some people's jurors. In this regard, Associate Professor Ling Bin of Peking University Law School, who served as the vice president of the grass-roots court, said frankly, "If the people's jurors just sit and sign, it will be difficult to play the judicial and democratic role of the people's jury system."

"There is a gap between the original intention and practice of system design. The most direct role of people's jurors has become to ease the contradiction between the number of people handling cases in the court and ensure that the collegiate bench is' sufficient'. " Lin Wei analyzed.

According to reports, in order to give full play to the important role of the masses in judicial participation and supervision, Taiyuan City, where Li Liping is located, will be used as a pilot of the "Multiplication Plan", and the number of people's jurors in the city will increase from 222 now to 448 this year. It has become a consensus to promote judicial democracy by expanding the ranks of people's jurors.

The number has gone up, how to better ensure the effectiveness of the "trial"? "One is initiative, and the other is learning." Li Liping believes that jurors should go straight to the point when participating in a case, so that judges and parties can adopt your opinions more. Therefore, daily legal quality training is essential.

"Training" before "jury" is the way to improve the performance of people's jurors in the local "multiplication plan". This summer, Shanxi University welcomed a group of "students" from all walks of life and different ages. They are newly elected people's jurors in the county court. "People's jurors come from the masses. They analyze and judge cases from social moral standards and form complementary thinking with judges, which is conducive to finding out the facts of the case and eliminating the suspicion and misunderstanding of the parties to the court trial." A people's juror in fangshan county stated his position in the final exam.

Years of jury experience made Li Liping feel the same way. "The trial of people's jurors is really different from the trial of judges. In addition to being legal, jurors pay more attention to reasonable use, which can play a better judicial effect. "

In this regard, Lin Wei recognized that "although the people's jurors do not have a complete professional thinking of judges, they act naturally and rationally in the trial of cases, which represents a wider range of public opinion and conscience and can enhance the public's sense of identity with the verdict. Moreover, people's jurors naturally contact all aspects of the public. As an important bridge between the court and the masses, it is easier to deepen the society's understanding and trust in judicial justice. " (Reporter Ji Ye)