Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD)

Abstract

This study explores the simplified procedure for guilty plea cases emerged in the context of the rise of crime in China. It examines the effect of the simplified procedure and the relevance of the concept of guilty plea in practice, seeking to answer the questions such as: how efficient was it in process durations in the simplified procedure? Is there any difference for guilty plea cases in sentencing between simplified procedure and regular procedure cases? What is the core problem in considerations and relationship between justice and efficiency in the simplified procedure?

To answer these questions, the empirical study is developed on the basis of relevant case summaries collected from the database of Chinalawinfo and surveys carried out in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Hunan in China. Three basic ideas come out from it: First, the duration of process in the simplified procedure changes little, particularly in trial stage. Second, there is no substantial difference for guilty plea cases in sentencing between simplified procedure and regular procedure cases. Third, the simplified procedure without the support of the public defense system would be deemed defective. Under these findings, it appears better to improve the presence of defense to ultimately overcome the ineffectiveness or problems in the implementation of the simplified procedure.

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