| dc.description.abstract | In the past, the criminal litigation system in Taiwan generally focused on the defendants′ status and rights. On the other hand, not being procedural subjects, crime victims suffer from three major obstacles in the criminal litigation process: incomplete information, insufficient participation, and inadequate protection. To strengthen crime victims’ status and enable them to enjoy a certain degree of rights in the criminal litigation system, the Code of Criminal Procedure (“CCP”), which passed the third reading in the Legislative Yuan in 2019, includes the protection and participation of crime victims to be implemented in the following year. Ever since, in prescribed or major cases, crime victims can request to be a procedural participant in the criminal litigation, thereby enjoying ＂the right to be represented”, “the right to be informed,” “the right to be notified and present,” “the right to present opinions regarding evidence,” and “the right to present opinions about sentencing,＂ etc. Under the same token, Paragraph 4 of Article 163 and Paragraph 2 of Article 289 of CCP as well as the Citizen Judge Act were all amended in order to incorporate the crime victim′s right to participate into the criminal litigation system. These amendments aimed to comprehensively solve the long-standing difficulties faced by crime victims and to enhance the people′s trust in the judicial system.
Nevertheless, there might be concerns about whether the amendments can bring the expected benefits to crime victims. The amendments might be insufficient, further creating problems and implications. Thus, the impetus of this paper was to discover the potential omission and problems in our system by comparing the procedural participants’ status under the victim participation in Japan, the crime victims′ rights in America, and the private accessory prosecution (Nebenklage) in Germany. This paper attempted to draw a blueprint for the most suitable victim participation system in our country and proposes some suggestions and directions for future amendments. With this blueprint, both spirits of the CCP—discovering truth and protecting human rights—can be achieved; that is, not only the plight of crime victims can be resolved, but also the victims’ rights can be enhanced without upsetting the existing balance in the criminal litigation system and without sacrificing the defendant′s right to a fair trial. | en_US |