Verdict still out on jury system in China

CHINA: The jury system in China, where a defendant’s guilt is often presumed before cases come to court, is a work in progress after a year’s trial but reforms are needed, senior officials said.

Juries have been on trial for just over two years in China, where media regularly report details of a defendant’s guilt before a trial has even started and courts are commonly viewed as venues merely for passing sentence.

Trial by jury “is a system designed to complement professional judges and improve judgments by the court”, Chief Justice Xiao Yang was quoted by state media as saying at a conference on jury reform.

Reform was important because it “conforms to the democratic nature of the judiciary as well as the need to maximise justice”, he said.

Currently, 55,681 jurors across the country were taking part in criminal and civil cases at county- or district-level courts, the China Daily said. In the more than two years since the system was introduced, jurors had participated in 644,723 trials.

“More than 80 percent of the cases resulted in a successful conclusion to the first trial, contributing to social stability and harmony,” Xiao said.

Courts are supposed to select a jury on a random basis, but in reality only 937 courts across the country complied with the practice, the Legal Daily said.

“Each juror will decide on both factual and legal issues, independently,” Cao Jianming, vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court, was quoted as saying by the China Daily. Under the British jury system, juries return verdicts on matters of fact only.

A Chinese juror can request that a court president hand a case on to the judicial council for reconsideration if he or she disagrees with a bench’s ruling. “It is superior to the jury system in some Western countries in such areas,” Cao said.

Chinese legal scholars have welcomed the system as a positive step towards more substantial judicial reforms but have also cast doubt on its effectiveness as rulings are often, if not always, decided upon by Communist Party and government officials.

Beijing, Tuesday, Reuters.