China to expand court assessors system as part of judicial reform
Increased efforts will also be made to ensure people’s right to participate in the legal process, official says
China has vowed to expand the scope of the court assessors system, allowing them to participate in more cases and clarifying their roles, a senior legal official said.
Jiang Wei, head of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Judicial Reform, also said today in a press briefing on revamping the nation’s legal system that increased efforts would be made to ensure people’s right to participate in the judicial process and that officials are kept from interfering into court proceedings.
The current system is flawed, Jiang said, because the number of court assessors is limited. The assessors have the same authority and power as judges in determining the application of laws and examining of facts in legal proceedings.
In a jury system, it is the jurors who are responsible for making judgments on facts and giving their verdict. The judges are responsible for application of law and imposing sentences.
Thus, in the assessors system, the distinction between the function and role of the judge and jury has vanished.
“To ask those assessors who do not have enough legal knowledge to get involved in determining the application of the laws will lead to a situation that the assessors [are] not willing to or do not dare to give their opinion,” Jiang said.
Changes will be made in order that assessors will not determine how the laws should be applied, but only examine facts of a case, he added.