Deviations and Corrections in the Design and Practical Operation of the Criminal Pretrial Conference System
As the core content of China's pretrial preparation procedure,procedural initiation,procedural participation,the scope of issues to be dealt with and the effectiveness of the system of the criminal pretrial conference have not been strictly limited or constrained by the norms,resulting in a low rate of application in practice,an expansion of the scope of the matters to be dealt with,limited safeguards for the courts centralized and sustained hearings,insufficient safeguards for the procedural rights of the defence,and other practical problems.The concept of perfecting the mechanism should be to prevent the pursuit of litigation efficiency from overstepping the substantive goal of the trial,to guarantee centralized and continuous trials in the courtroom,and to respect the procedural value of safeguarding the rights of the defence.In the construction of the specific system,the necessity of initiating a pretrial conference under certain circumstances should be given,the matters to be dealt with at the pretrial conference should be limited,the scope of the main participants should be clarified and the exercise of their right to participate should be guaranteed,and the procedural effectiveness of the mechanism should be stipulated.