| dc.description.abstract | Applying citizen participation to the trial of criminal cases will create some contradictions and conflicts between the independence of judicial trials and the legal profession. Even though the national judge system adopts a voting system in the final review, the number of votes of national judges is different from that of professional judges. The votes are equal, but as the professional judges said, if the judgment of the national judge violates the legal profession, the professional judge will still intervene, explain the obligations to the national judge in detail, and persuade the national judge to obtain the same result as himself. Argument, this is the conflict between professionalism and democratization. This is even more true during the sentencing review process, even after a vote has been taken to convict. Even if professional judges generally believe that when national judges participate in the trial of cases, the sentences sometimes are heavier than those imposed during their own trials. This also allows professional judges to reflect on whether they are dealing with cases of the same nature and the sentencing standards should be increased. This is similar to there may be some contradictions in the criminal law′s principle of treating crime more lightly than suspect.
Our country′s national participation trial system was developed with reference to the Japanese referee system. In cases involving national judges, due to limited review time, professional judges rarely explain the sentencing standards and purpose of sentencing to national judges during sentencing reviews. Moreover, the sentencing of major criminal cases, the benchmarks, and practices have not yet been established. Most of the national judges are participating in trials for the first time. Before the trial of each national judge case, the court spends a long time on preparatory work in order to make the trial process smoother and also can enhance the power of citizen participation. However, it is worth reflecting on the impact on the legal profession if major high-profile judicial cases resort to citizen participation, and the impact on the independence of judicial trials after the decentralization of national judicial power. | en_US |