The People's Assessors in China's Legal System: Current Legal Structure for Their Duty and Its Justification

• Author: Qiu Qunran and Yan Chen
• Pages: 172-183

8 CLU_JURY.DOC (DO NOT DELETE) 2019-12-20 12:24 PM

172 TSINGHUA CHINA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 12:171

THE PEOPLE’S ASSESSORS IN CHINA’S LEGAL SYSTEM:

CURRENT LEGAL STRUCTURE FOR THEIR DUTY AND ITS

JUSTIFICATION

QIU Qunran

YAN Chen

I. INTRODUCTION

On 24 April 2019, the Chinese Supreme People’s Court issued

the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues

concerning the Application of the Law of the People’s Republic of

China on People’s Assessors (hereafter referred to as

“Interpretation”), adjusting the division of duty between judges and

assessors. In the Chinese legal system, the term “people’s assessor

(人民陪审员)” refers to a citizen who participates in trial activities

of people’s courts. The assessors share similarities with the jurors in

American legal system because they are, by nature, non-judge

citizens involved in the trial process.

This note starts from a brief sketch of the history of the assessor

system in China and would focus on the Interpretation. Part II

discusses the current scope of the assessors’ duty, and provides some

justifications for this duty arrangement. Part Ⅲ focuses on the

extent to which the assessors could influence the final judgment

delivered by the court, with a comparison to that in American jury

system.

II. HISTORY OF THE ASSESSOR SYSTEM IN CHINA

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, t he

development of the assessor system legislation can be divided into

three stages.

The first stage started in 1954. Both Article 75 of the Constitution

of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter referred to as

“Constitution”) (1954)1 and Article 8 of the Organic Law of the

People’s Courts of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter referred

to as “Organic Law of the People’s Court”) (1954)2 expressively but

briefly regulated the implementation of the assessor system. During

this period, there was a lack of matching civil or criminal procedural

1 Xianfa art. 75 (1954).

2 Renmin Fayuan Zuzhi Fa ( 人民法院组织法) [Organic Law of the People’s Court] (promulgated

by the Standing Comm. Nat’ l People’s Cong., Sept. 21, 1954, effective Sept. 21, 1954) art. 8

(Chinalawinfo).