Study on the People’s Assessors System

Abstract:
On Jan. 28, 2015, Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court was officially established. The court is a new-type court which was built in accordance with the central government’s requirements and Qianhai’s positioning as a model district for socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics. Compared with traditional courts, Qianhai court has a number of new features and one of them is “the appointment of people’s assessors from Hong Kong”.
“The cooperation between people’s assessors from China's Hong Kong and judges on Chinese mainland can achieve judicial justice, remove the sense of strangeness of people from China's Hong Kong and Macao to the judiciary on Chinese mainland due to the differences in systems and living environment and make the judgment more transparent.” Given the quality of the cases accepted by Qianhai court, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan people’s assessors system should be established and improved. The system is a product of innovation of people’s assessors system in Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Cooperation Zone.
Looking back the history and status quo of China’s people’s assessors system, Qianhai people’s court need to consider a number of new subjects to establish and improve the jury system of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. These subjects include the following: first, the jury system of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan should be established based on China’s people’s assessors system; second, the court should, based on its own positioning, avoid similar weaknesses of China’s people’s assessors system and make its experience “replicable” and “applicable”.
(For more information, please stay tuned for the collection of research results which will be published by Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court recently.)