Handle every case with high quality and efficiency
Strive to make the masses of the people
Feel fairness and justice in every judicial case
Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Procurator General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate
Ying Yong
table of contents
I. Introduction
2. Why should we propose "handling every case with high quality and efficiency"?
3. Systematically grasp the practical requirements of "handling every case with high quality and efficiency".
Fourth, improve the safeguard mechanism for "handling every case with high quality and efficiency".
V. Conclusion
summary
Handling every case with high quality and efficiency is the basic value pursuit of procuratorial performance and case handling in the new era and new journey, which embodies the organic unity of stressing politics and stressing the rule of law, the organic unity of quality, efficiency, and effectiveness, and the organic unity of high quality and efficiency of individual cases and overall high quality and efficiency. To ensure the realization of fairness and justice in substance, it is necessary to implement the principle of taking facts as the basis and the law as the criterion, so as to achieve the organic unity of law, reason, and feelings; In terms of procedures, to make fairness and justice better and faster, it is necessary to take into account both "better" and "faster"; In terms of effect, so that the masses can feel, feel, and feel fairness and justice, we must pay attention to realizing that the case is settled, and carry forward the spirit of socialist rule of law. Efforts should be made to improve the quality of the contingent, improve the mechanism for restricting and supervising the operation of procuratorial power, improve the management of procuratorial operations, improve the guarantee mechanism for handling every case with high quality and efficiency, and strive to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.
I. Introduction
In March 2023, the Party Group of the Supreme People's Procuratorate proposed to make the high-quality and efficient handling of every case the basic value pursuit of procuratorial performance and case handling in the new era and new journey, to ensure the realization of fairness and justice in substance, to make fairness and justice better and faster in procedure, and to make the people feel, feel, and feel fairness and justice in terms of effect, so that the quality, efficiency, and effect of procuratorial case handling are organically unified with fairness and justice. Procuratorial organs across the country have followed up on research and practical exploration, and have continued to work in this direction, achieving initial results. How to make this requirement a conscious action of all procurators needs to be further explored and implemented in depth from the connotation and significance to the specific requirements. This article will discuss the reasons, practical requirements, and safeguard mechanisms from the aspects of putting forward the reasons, practical requirements, and safeguard mechanisms, aiming to promote procuratorial organs to be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, always adhere to strict handling of cases in accordance with the law, and impartial justice, continue to handle every case with high quality and efficiency, and strive to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.
2. Why should we propose "handling every case with high quality and efficiency"?
General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that "efforts should be made to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case", and demanded that "all judicial organs should improve their work closely around this goal". How does the procuratorate do it? The Supreme People's Procuratorate's Party Group proposes to handle every case with high quality and efficiency, which fundamentally stems from Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and is an important aspect of the procuratorial practice of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law.
(1) From the perspective of political responsibility, "handling every case with high quality and efficiency" is the specific practice of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important exposition on judicial fairness in the procuratorial field, reflecting the organic unity of stressing politics and stressing the rule of law
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has published a series of important expositions on judicial fairness, scientifically answering major theoretical and practical questions such as why to achieve fair justice, what kind of fair justice to achieve, and how to achieve fair justice, forming the "judicial chapter" of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law. "Striving to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case" is the principled and basic requirement of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law on fair justice, a major topic and work goal entrusted by General Secretary Xi Jinping to all judicial organs, and an important political responsibility that procuratorial organs must shoulder. The Supreme People's Procuratorate's Party Group proposes to handle every case with high quality and efficiency, which is to truly implement the principled and basic requirements of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law for fair justice. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "fairness and justice are the soul and life of justice", "fair justice is related to the vital interests of the people, social fairness and justice, and the comprehensive promotion of the rule of law", and profoundly pointed out that "if we do not strive to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case, the people will not trust the political and legal organs, and thus the party and the government". Handling every case with high quality and efficiency, and achieving strict law enforcement and fair justice, is essentially the concretization and practice of stressing politics, the organic unity of focusing on politics and the rule of law, and is an inevitable requirement for upholding the party's absolute leadership over judicial work and adhering to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, and is the basic carrier and important starting point for serving the overall situation, administering justice for the people, and taking responsibility for the rule of law.
(2) From the perspective of legal theory, "handling every case with high quality and efficiency" is a comprehensive grasp of overall substantive justice, procedural justice, and social justice, reflecting the organic unity of quality, efficiency, and effect
In ancient and modern times, in China and abroad, justice has always been the eternal theme of legal exploration and legal theory on justice. More than 2,000 years ago, Guan Zhong, a representative of Legalism in the Spring and Autumn Period, pointed out that "those who do the Dharma must not be unorthodox." If you don't do it properly, you will be unfair. If you listen to the unfairness, you will not be able to deal with the reason, and you will not be able to do everything properly. The United Kingdom philosopher Bacon also said: "One unjust judgment can be worse than ten crimes." For while crime is a disregard for the law, it is like polluting a stream of water, and an unfair trial destroys the law, as it is polluting a water. These expositions all contain the simple jurisprudence of impartial justice. Fairness and justice are the basic elements and important core of socialist law, and the basic requirement and value pursuit of socialist rule of law. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "justice is the lifeline of the rule of law" and "comprehensive governance of the country according to law must be carried out closely around the protection and promotion of social fairness and justice", and clearly pointed out that "fairness and justice are the lifeline of political and legal work". Handling each case with high quality and efficiency focuses on the excellent quality, high efficiency, and good results of case handling, and requires the implementation of the Constitution and legal provisions, carrying forward the spirit of socialist rule of law, coordinating substantive justice, procedural justice, and social justice, and better safeguarding fairness and justice in judicial case handling. Substantive justice focuses on improving the quality of case handling and ensuring that the conclusions of case handling can stand the test of law, history and the people; Procedural fairness focuses on standardizing the case-handling process and improving case-handling efficiency to ensure substantive fairness; Social justice focuses on improving the effectiveness of case handling. Quality, efficiency, and effectiveness are the three basic elements of judicial case handling, and the three are interrelated, complementary, and interlocking, and are organically unified in fairness and justice.
(3) From a practical perspective, "handling every case with high quality and efficiency" is the basic standard and basic requirement for procurators to perform their duties and handle cases, reflecting the organic unity of high quality and efficiency of individual cases and overall high quality and efficiency
"Handling cases" is the main way for procurators to perform their duties. Handling cases, handling cases well, and handling every case well is the basic duty of every procurator. Handling every case and every link of a case with high quality and efficiency is an important mission for procuratorial organs to focus on the main responsibility and main business of legal supervision and ensure the uniform and correct implementation of national laws. When General Secretary Xi Jinping was working in Zhejiang, he pointed out: "It is very important for the people to look at our party and our political power, that is, to see whether our courts and procuratorates are fair and efficient in handling cases, and whether there is corruption and bending the law. Do not ignore a small case, a person is likely to only come into contact with one case and go to court once in his life, but it will affect a person's understanding of the entire judicial organ and affect the image of the party and the government. "In judicial practice, most cases occur around the masses, and every case carries the vital interests of the parties, and no matter how small the case is, it is also related to the people's livelihood and people's hearts. As a "yardstick" for the people to feel social justice, judicial justice is not abstract, but concrete, and it is embodied in individual justice and through countless cases. Without the impartiality of every case, the goal of the judiciary to safeguard fairness and justice will become water without a source and a tree without roots. To handle every case with high quality and efficiency, the emphasis is on "high quality and efficiency", the key is to "handle it well", and the difficulty lies in "every one". It is necessary to handle every case and every link of a case with heart and emotion, accumulate the overall fairness of the judiciary through the fairness of each specific case, and promote the overall quality and efficiency of legal supervision with the high quality and efficiency of individual cases.
3. Systematically grasp the practical requirements of "handling every case with high quality and efficiency".
"High quality and efficiency" is both a standard and a requirement; "Doing well" is not only the process, but also the result; "Each" is both a part and a whole. How? The key lies in handling cases in strict accordance with the law and ensuring judicial fairness, and judicial activities must be carried out unremittingly in this direction. The party group of the Supreme People's Procuratorate proposed that we should be good at accurately grasping the substantive legal relationship from the complex legal facts, be good at profoundly understanding the spirit of the rule of law from specific legal provisions, and be good at realizing fairness and justice in the organic unity of law, reason, and feelings.
To "handle every case with high quality and efficiency", we must first build a standard system for handling cases with high quality and efficiency. Enterprises have product quality management system certification standards, and procuratorial cases should also have case quality standards. Each line of work of the procuratorial organs should combine the actual performance of their duties and case handling, build a standard system for high-quality and efficient case handling, and clarify what kind of cases can be called high-quality and efficient. The Organic Law of the People's Procuratorate clearly stipulates: "The People's Procuratorate adheres to judicial fairness, takes the facts as the basis and the law as the criterion, abides by legal procedures, and respects and protects human rights." The Procurators Law stipulates: "Procurators performing their duties shall be based on facts, take the law as the criterion, and uphold an objective and fair position." "These regulations are the basic standards for high-quality and efficient case handling. The premise and foundation for high-quality and efficient case handling is to handle cases strictly in accordance with the law and administer justice fairly. The duties of procuratorial organs are statutory, and they can neither be transferred nor expanded, but they must always focus on the main responsibility and main business of legal supervision, always act in accordance with the provisions and procedures of the law, and implement the requirements of substance, procedures, and effects in an integrated manner.
(1) To ensure the realization of fairness and justice in substance, it is necessary to implement the principle of taking the facts as the basis and the law as the criterion, so that the law, reason, and sentiment are organically unified
General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "The so-called fair justice means that the rights that have been violated must be protected and remedied, and illegal and criminal activities must be sanctioned and punished." This important exposition profoundly points out the substantive requirements of a fair judiciary. The three major procedural laws of criminal, civil, and administrative law, as well as the Organic Law of the People's Procuratorate and the Law on Procurators, all clearly stipulate that "the facts shall be the basis and the law shall be the criterion." This is the legal basis for achieving substantive justice. For different types of cases, it is necessary to grasp key elements such as the determination of facts, the review of evidence, and the application of law, to further clarify the focus, methods, and standards of review, and promote the improvement of the quality of case handling. To achieve substantive justice, we must focus on grasping the "three-pair relationship".
First, it is necessary to accurately grasp the relationship between evidence and facts. Evidence is a material that can be used to prove the facts of a case and is the basic basis for judicial case handling. The three major procedural laws all have special chapters on "evidence", making it clear that evidence that is verified is the basis for determining facts. Facts include legal facts and objective facts. Legal facts refer to facts that are inferred and confirmed in accordance with legal procedures based on the evidence collected, and are of great legal significance for resolving case disputes and realizing legal claims. Associated with legal facts are objective facts, that is, the "truth of facts" that ordinary people often say. Legal facts are objective facts that are proved by evidence, and legal facts must be pursued with objective facts as the goal, and they must be reproduced or close to objective facts as much as possible. In order to achieve "clear facts of the case", it is necessary to ensure that "the evidence is credible and sufficient". The ability to review evidence is the most basic and basic ability of a procurator. The party group of the Supreme People's Procuratorate proposed that in criminal prosecution, it is necessary to focus on the trial-centered reform of the criminal procedure system, and strive to build an evidence-centered criminal accusation system; In civil, administrative, and public interest litigation procuratorates, it is also necessary to put the review of evidence in a prominent position. In handling cases, procurators should emphasize evidence, investigation and research, not lightly believe confessions, collect and fix evidence in accordance with law, and accurately review and use evidence. In particular, it is necessary to closely focus on the legality, objectivity, and relevance of evidence to ensure that the collection and provision of evidence complies with the provisions of the law, and that there is a close relationship between evidence and the facts to be proven.
To properly handle the relationship between evidence and facts, it is necessary to strengthen the examination of key evidence on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the evidence in the entire case, so as to make an accurate judgment on the facts of the case. Only when the evidence in the whole case is credible and sufficient, forms a closed loop, and the key evidence plays a qualitative role, can the facts of the case be clear. The 2024 Supreme People's Procuratorate Work Report mentions two cases: one is that Chen Cang and others committed a burglary, and after being discovered, he killed the mother and son, and was seized 17 years after the incident. Because he retracted his confession, the original trial court found that there were contradictions between the evidence and found him not guilty, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate found that the existing evidence had formed a complete chain and could eliminate reasonable doubt, and raised a prosecutorial counter-appeal in accordance with the law, and the sentence was commuted to a suspended death sentence. The key evidence in this case is a fingerprint left by the criminal on the window during the burglary, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate proposed that "it cannot be formed unless it is present at the scene" and "it cannot be formed outside the outside", which plays an important role in the characterization of the case. The other is the "Mao rape and homicide case" reviewed by the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate. A homeless woman was raped and killed, and the public security organs found Mao, who lived nearby, on suspicion of committing a major crime, and Mao confessed 10 times before and after admitting his guilt. When the prosecutor reviewed the prosecution, it was found that Mao's confession about the murder was highly consistent with the scene inquest and autopsy, but there were inconsistencies in the confession of the cause of the crime, part of the scene conditions, the details of the crime, and the means of causing death, and the physical evidence obtained from the scene inquest was also unrelated to Mao. The procuratorate urged the public security organs to release Mao in accordance with the law and continue to follow up and supervise, and the real culprit was arrested 14 years later. The key piece of evidence in this case is the DNA opinion.
To properly handle the relationship between evidence and facts, it is also necessary to pay attention to excluding illegal evidence, correcting flawed evidence, and strengthening objective evidence. It is necessary to promote the evidence review model based on objective evidence, and consolidate and improve the evidence system. In situations where there are doubts, it is necessary to make full use of methods such as supplemental investigation on their own, return for supplemental investigation, and investigation and verification, strictly implement the rules for the exclusion of illegal evidence, and supplement all types of evidence used to determine legal facts. For example, the Hainan Provincial Procuratorate handled a theft case, and through careful review and guidance to supplement the investigation and strengthen the evidence, the key facts of the crime were determined. Li and two accomplices conspired to steal, Li climbed up to the third floor from the outdoors, used pliers to cut the anti-theft net into the victim's home, stole a backpack containing 300,000 yuan in cash, and then fled the scene with two accomplices of Wangfeng. After identification, the DNA typing detected by the suspicious traces on the anti-theft window rails and the handles of the pliers left at the scene was the same as Li's DNA typing. The public security organs arrested Li and transferred him for review and prosecution on suspicion of theft, when the two accomplices had not yet been brought into the case. The procuratorate prosecuted Li on suspicion of stealing 300,000 yuan in cash. The court of first instance found that Li had committed burglary, but held that the evidence in the case could not prove that the stolen property was 300,000 yuan, and sentenced Li to one year in prison and a fine of 3,000 yuan. The procuratorate raised a protest, and in the second instance, it guided the public security organs to supplement new evidence such as the victim's habit of depositing cash and the source of 300,000 yuan in cash, and at the same time guided the public security organs to increase the intensity of pursuit of the two accomplices. After the two accomplices arrived at the case, they both admitted that they had jointly stolen 300,000 yuan with Li, and each received 100,000 yuan. The second trial court sentenced Li to 11 years in prison and a fine of 300,000 yuan; In the other case, the two accomplices were sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 110,000 yuan. All three pleaded guilty and submitted to justice. Evidence review should be more focused on personal experience. Investigation and verification should come out of the case file, from the office, and from the procuratorial organs, so as to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of obtaining evidence and supplementing evidence through the personal experience of reviewing evidence. In a civil enforcement supervision case of a contract dispute handled by the procuratorate of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the arbitration award was that Company A paid more than 8 million yuan for the project to Company B and interest, and Company A failed to perform its obligations, and Company B applied to the court for compulsory enforcement. During the enforcement process, the court ruled to terminate the enforcement procedure because Company A had no property available for enforcement. Company B believes that Company A has maliciously transferred property and applies to the procuratorate for enforcement supervision. After investigation and verification, the procuratorate discovers key information such as large-amount transfers in the bank account of the person subject to enforcement, verifies objective evidence such as the flow of funds and personnel relationships with the bank and relevant departments, ascertains the facts of the person subject to enforcement evading enforcement, and submits procuratorial suggestions to the court. The court accepted the recommendation and the case was fully implemented. In another example, in an administrative protest case, Yang died at a construction site, and the employer made a false statement that Yang died in the hospital, and the human resources and social security department made a decision not to recognize the work-related injury without verifying the relevant facts. Dissatisfied, Yang's father sued the court, and the first-instance, second-instance, and retrial judgments all rejected his litigation claims, so he applied to the procuratorate for supervision. The procuratorate conducted on-site investigation and verification, and obtained new evidence such as medical institutions' diagnosis and treatment and rescue certificates, proving that Yang had died before being sent to the hospital for rescue, overturning the determination of facts in the original judgment. After the Supreme People's Procuratorate appealed, it was supported by the Supreme People's Court, and jointly urged the human resources and social security departments to correct their mistakes and make a decision to determine work-related injuries.
Second, it is necessary to accurately grasp the relationship between formal examination and substantive judgment. The logical thinking of judicial case handling generally moves from shallow to deep, from the surface to the inside, from formal examination to substantive judgment. Efforts should be made to clarify the substantive legal issues and clarify the focus of the dispute in the case. Taking criminal prosecution as an example, the purpose of handling a case is to protect legal interests, which requires grasping the crime involved as the most substantial and major social harm, and on this basis, accurately defining crime and non-crime, this crime and other crimes, one crime and multiple crimes, and accurately grasping the criteria for arrest and non-arrest, prosecution and non-prosecution. At the same time, if a criminal act superficially meets the constitutive elements of multiple crimes, it is necessary to think more deeply about whether it can grasp the substantive points of contention to the greatest extent, correctly apply criminal law theories such as competition of laws and imagination, and select the most comprehensive, accurate, and substantive assessment of the crime of social harmfulness of the crime. For example, Cao set up a company to publicize to the elderly and other unspecified members of the public under the guise of providing home-based elderly care services and investing in artworks, promising high returns of 8% to 36% per annum. In the past few years, it has absorbed more than 13.2 billion yuan from more than 110,000 people. Cao used a small part of the funds for investment, and most of them were used to pay principal and interest, salary and bonuses. Cao's fundraising behavior conforms to the characteristics of "illegality", "openness", "inducement" and "sociality" of illegally absorbing public deposits, and seems to constitute the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits. The Jiangsu Provincial Procuratorate closely followed the key point of "whether it had the purpose of illegal possession" and found that the company had no actual profitability, and for a long time, it had the purpose of illegal possession from the beginning, mainly by raising new funds to repay the old promised, and Cao's behavior should be characterized as the crime of fundraising fraud.
It is necessary to accurately determine the substantive legal relationship, and clarify what the relationship of rights and obligations that plays a leading and dominant role in the case is. Errors in the determination of legal relationships will directly lead to errors in the characterization of the case. In the supervision of civil false litigation, it is necessary to accurately ascertain the true expression of intent of the perpetrator, clearly and clearly determine the civil legal relationship, discover the nature of the false litigation from the original case, and supervise and correct it in accordance with law. For example, a state-owned enterprise, Company A, was sued for failing to repay a bank loan on time. In order to transfer the assets of Company A and its subsidiaries, the team members of Company A contributed capital to establish Company B in their personal names, signed a loan agreement with the subsidiaries of Company A, and lent the funds entrusted by Company A to Company B. After the loan expired, Company B applied to the court for a payment order, and reached a settlement agreement during the enforcement process, embezzling state-owned assets by repaying debts with real estate, and the value of the case was more than 100 million yuan. After examination, the Guangdong Provincial Procuratorate found that Company B maliciously colluded with the subsidiaries of Company A and fabricated debts to apply for payment orders, which constituted a false lawsuit, supervised and corrected the civil case, and at the same time prosecuted the members of the team of Company A for suspected corruption and bribery. False litigation is highly concealed and requires substantive examination, so that malicious collusion has nowhere to hide.
In order to truly resolve substantive legal issues, it is necessary to clarify what issues should and must be resolved in the end in handling cases. In practice, some administrative litigation cases have been dismissed on the grounds that the time limit for litigation has expired, and the conditions for filing a lawsuit have not been filed, and the case has been "handled" but the substantive issues in dispute have not been resolved. In the course of procuratorial supervision, many such cases of "procedural idling" were discovered. There is a very typical case: Yao and "Mo" registered their marriage, and the next day "Mo" disappeared with a bride price of 70,000 yuan. In the following seven years, Yao traveled back and forth to Fujian and Guangxi many times, and continued to report and seek help from relevant departments. reported the case to the public security organ on the grounds that he had been deceived into marriage, but the case was not filed due to insufficient evidence; An application to the Civil Affairs Bureau for revocation of the marriage registration was not accepted because there were no statutory circumstances such as coercion; He filed divorce proceedings with the court, applied for annulment of marriage, and applied for revocation of marriage registration, all of which were not supported because they did not comply with relevant regulations. 7 years of running around with no results. After accepting the appeal, the procuratorate found out that "Mo" had marriage registration information in 5 provinces at the same time, and was suspected of cheating on marriage, and issued a procuratorial recommendation to the Civil Affairs Bureau to cancel the marriage registration; At the same time, the public security organs filed a case to investigate the marriage fraud case, and "Mo" was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. The Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the Supreme People's Court, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, issued opinions to guide all localities to properly handle the issue of impersonation or fraudulent marriage registration. Procuratorial organs should not only focus on supervising the correctness of judgments in administrative litigation cases, but also examine the legality of administrative acts themselves through litigation, and cooperate with courts and administrative organs to promote the substantive resolution of administrative disputes in accordance with laws and regulations. In public interest litigation prosecution, the real substantive legal issue to be resolved is the issue of public interest damage, and the key of "justiciability" must be firmly grasped. The basic elements of "actionability" include the existence of a qualified subject to litigation, the fact of public interest damage, and the existence of express authorization by law; If it is an administrative public interest lawsuit, there shall also be an administrative violation, including illegal performance of duties or failure to perform duties. It is necessary to grasp these requirements and improve the accuracy and standardization of public interest litigation procuratorates.
Third, it is necessary to accurately grasp the relationship between legal norms and the spirit of the rule of law. Accurate application of the law is key to substantive justice. Strengthening the review of evidence, proving legal facts, and making substantive judgments are the prerequisites for accurately applying the law. To accurately apply the law, it is necessary to deeply understand the spirit of the rule of law from the specific legal provisions, and accurately apply the specific legal provisions under the guidance of the spirit of the rule of law and the principles of the rule of law. The spirit of the rule of law is embedded in legal norms. In judicial practice, compliance with legal norms is the first-level requirement for the application of law, and upholding the spirit of the rule of law is a higher-level requirement for the application of law. If legal norms are only understood literally, rather than in the context of politics, society, history, and culture, it is difficult to accurately apply the law, and it is also difficult to handle every case with high quality and efficiency.
(2) In terms of procedures, fairness and justice should be better and faster, and "better" and "faster" should be taken into account
General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that "abiding by the law and emphasizing procedures are the first requirement of the rule of law", pointing out that "if the people cannot guarantee their legitimate rights through the judicial process, then the judiciary will have no credibility, and the people will not believe in the judiciary". These important expositions contain profound reflections on the importance of both substantive and procedural justice. The rule of law is both a rule of rules and a rule of procedure. Substantive justice and procedural justice are both important components of judicial justice, procedural justice is a necessary prerequisite and means to achieve substantive justice, and substantive justice is the ultimate goal and result of procedural justice, and the two are interdependent and cannot be neglected. In the handling of judicial cases, respecting procedures and exercising judicial power in accordance with legal procedures is an important guarantee of judicial fairness and public trust. Let fairness and justice be better and faster, emphasizing that "faster" is subordinated to "better", and "faster" on the basis of "better" is dialectically unified.
To make fairness and justice "better", we must pay attention to the role of procedural guarantees. Fully ensuring that all parties to litigation exercise their procedural rights and perform their litigation obligations in accordance with the law is the proper meaning of procedural fairness, and is also an inevitable requirement for achieving judicial fairness. Practice has fully proved that if only the substantive results of the case are paid attention to, and the case handling procedures are ignored, the implementation of the procedural law is not strict, which often leads to a series of subsequent problems. Not only is it easy to breed illegal investigations and illegal evidence collection, but also fails to achieve substantive justice, but also undermines the authority of the law and judicial credibility, and even leads to the occurrence of unjust and wrongful cases. In practice, the reason why some parties are dissatisfied is not that they are dissatisfied with the substantive results, but that they believe that there is a lack of procedural fairness. The entire process and all aspects of procuratorial performance and handling of cases should strictly follow the provisions of the Procedural Law, protecting the basic procedural rights of parties and other litigation participants, such as the right to know, the right to apply, the right to make statements, and the right to appeal, and urging parties and other litigation participants to undertake litigation obligations such as complying with litigation order and performing effective judgments, and having procedural fairness ensure substantive justice, so that fairness and justice can be better realized. At the same time, it is necessary to attach importance to supervising and correcting procedural violations.
To make fairness and justice "faster", we must focus on improving judicial efficiency. The best fairness and justice must be the most timely fairness and justice. Compliance with the statutory time limit for handling cases is the bottom line requirement for a fair judiciary. In practice, some cases have not been investigated for a long time, prosecuted for a long time, or tried for a long time, and have been "pending cases" for a long time, violating the requirements of procedural fairness, and seriously affecting the public's feelings about fairness and justice. Procuratorial organs should not only ensure that they continue to improve judicial efficiency, but also supervise other law enforcement and judicial organs in accordance with the law to strictly abide by the time limit for handling cases. Only when procedures are more convenient and mechanisms are more optimized can judicial case handling be more efficient and effective. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "It is necessary to deepen the reform of the litigation system and promote the separation of complicated and simple cases, the separation of minor and serious, and the separation of fast and slow. "This is an important procedural move to make fairness and justice better and faster. Procuratorates should coordinate with other law enforcement and judicial organs to complete mechanisms for rapid case handling, increasing the efficiency of case handling. Some cases that apply the expedited procedures and summary procedures should be handled simply and expeditiously. Of course, there is no trivial matter in "small cases", "simple handling" is not "reducing handling", and quick handling is not chaotic handling. Regardless of whether it is a complicated case or a simple case, it is necessary to make fairness and justice better and faster on the basis of law-based norms.
(3) In terms of effect, so that the people can feel, feel, and feel fairness and justice, it is necessary to pay attention to bringing about the conclusion of the case, and carry forward the spirit of socialist rule of law
Judging fairness and justice is based on both objective criteria and subjective feelings. Objective standards such as "the determination of facts conforms to objective truth, the outcome of the case handling conforms to substantive justice, and the process of handling the case conforms to procedural fairness" is the basis and premise. However, if the objective criteria are met, the masses may not be able to "feel" fairness and justice. In judicial practice, it is not uncommon for judicial personnel to have a contrast between their self-perception and that of the masses. High-quality and efficient case handling should not only achieve fairness and justice in substance and procedure, but also let the people recognize and accept it from the bottom of their hearts, take the feelings of the people as the first feeling, and take the evaluation of the people as the first evaluation, so that the fair judiciary and the "scale" in the hearts of the people resonate at the same frequency.
Fairness and justice must not only be achieved, but also in a visible way. "Feelable", "feelable" and "felt" are organically connected and dialectically unified wholes. "Feelable" is the premise, indicating that fairness and justice objectively exist; "Being able to feel" is the key, indicating that the channels for feeling fairness and justice are unimpeded; "Feeling" is the result, showing that fairness and justice are truly felt. The fairness and justice that "allows the people to feel, feel, and feel" is the fairness and justice that unifies objective results and subjective perceptions, and the fairness and justice that are consistent with judicial judgments and mass judgments. Of course, convincing both victory and defeat is the ideal state of handling cases. Procuratorial organs should strive to handle more high-quality and effective cases that the people feel and that resonate with society, so that more people can truly feel that fairness and justice are around them and in front of them, and that more people can feel the power of fairness and justice and the temperature of the rule of law.
Strengthen the interpretation of the law and reasoning, so that the people can better feel fairness and justice. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "The law should not be cold, and judicial work is also the work of the masses." A judgment may be able to give justice to the parties, but it may not be able to untie the parties' 'heart knots', and if the 'heart knots' are not untied, the case will not be truly concluded. "In judicial practice, some cases have been handled without problems, but they have caused dissatisfaction among the parties and the public, largely due to insufficient interpretation of the law. Procurators should accurately grasp the social mentality and the emotions of the masses in the performance of their duties and handling cases, explain the law and reason throughout the entire process of handling cases, and adopt methods that the people can see and understand, to explain clearly the "legal principles", explain the "reasoning", and thoroughly explain the "reasonableness", and strive to let the parties untie both the "legal knot" and the "heart knot". The more open the judiciary is, the more credible it will be, and the more it will demonstrate fairness and justice. The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-style Modernization emphasizes the need to "deepen and standardize judicial openness". First of all, it is necessary to deepen the timely disclosure of what should be made public, so that the parties can fully understand the process of handling the case and conveniently express their own demands, so that more people can participate in the procuratorial work in an orderly manner, so that the procuratorial power can operate in the sunshine, and the public trust can be won by promoting fairness through openness. At the same time, it is also necessary to standardize and standardize the content and procedures of disclosure, coordinate the relationship between disclosure and security, and further improve the quality and effectiveness of procuratorial disclosure. Public hearings are an effective measure to improve the quality and efficiency of case handling, and are also an important channel for conveying fairness and justice. It is necessary to persist in "hearing all the evidence that should be heard," pay more attention to the necessity, effectiveness, and convenience of hearings, and unify the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of hearings with paying more attention to quality. Typical cases are vivid teaching materials for popularizing the law, and judicial fairness can lead to the progress of the rule of law. Procuratorates at all levels should strengthen the summarization and refinement of typical cases, use cases to explain the law, actively lead the social rule of law trend, carry forward the spirit of socialist rule of law, and carry forward the core socialist values.
Fourth, improve the safeguard mechanism for "handling every case with high quality and efficiency".
General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that efforts should be made to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case, and it is necessary to "focus on solving deep-seated problems that affect judicial fairness and restrict judicial capacity". The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) deployed "improving the judicial system and mechanism for impartial law enforcement". Procuratorial organs should improve relevant safeguard mechanisms in handling every case with high quality and efficiency.
(1) Strive to improve the quality of the team
Handling every case with high quality and efficiency lies fundamentally in people, relying on a strong procuratorial team. It is necessary to implement the Supreme People's Procuratorate's "Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of the Procuratorial Team in the New Era" and the "National Procuratorial Education and Training Plan (2023-2027)", strengthen the integration of political and professional training, and improve the political quality, professional competence and professional ethics of procuratorial personnel. Political competence is the first ability, and political firmness must be ensured with theoretical sobriety. Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law is the fundamental compliance and action guide for comprehensively governing the country according to law, as well as the fundamental compliance and action guide for procuratorial work. To handle every case with high quality and efficiency, it is necessary to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, complete the normalization mechanism for learning, thinking, and practicing Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and practice the "11 Persistences" in an integrated manner, so that learning and thinking are integrated and knowledge, belief and action are unified, and the "11 Persistences" are used everywhere and at all times to review procuratorial work and the performance of duties and case handling, and continue to promote the procuratorial practice of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law. Professional quality is the basic ability to perform duties and handle cases, and efforts should be made to improve the ability to correctly apply laws and policies. Improve the system for cultivating professional qualities, improve the normalized training mechanism, promote procuratorial personnel to be "good at the three things", truly be "skilled workers" in performing their duties and handling cases in accordance with the law, and strive to become "skilled craftsmen" in the use of laws and policies. Professional conscience is an intrinsic requirement for performing duties and handling cases, and the purpose of justice for the people must always be practiced. Professional conscience is the basic concept of good and evil, right and wrong. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The most important thing in the professional conscience of political and legal organs is to enforce the law for the people. Procurators should uphold an objective and fair stance, keep in mind the true meaning of the spirit of the rule of law that "the law is not noble and the rope is not bent", "sit on the side of the people", insist that everyone is equal before the law, believe in the rule of law, adhere to the rule of law, and be impartial and unbiased. Discipline and work style is an important guarantee for the performance of duties and handling cases, and comprehensive and strict management of procuratorial work must always blow the trumpet of the charge. It is necessary to persist in using the spirit of reform and strict standards to manage the party's administration and procuratorial work, establish a discipline education mechanism that combines regularity and centralization, strengthen restraint and supervision over the operation of procuratorial power, strictly enforce the "three provisions" on preventing interference in the judiciary, and further implement the ironclad prohibitions that will become stricter and stricter in the future.
(2) Improve mechanisms for restraint and oversight of the operation of procuratorial power
General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "To achieve strict law enforcement and fair justice, it is also necessary to rely on the system to ensure that the law enforcement and judicial power operates in the cage of the system", emphasizing that "we must pay close attention to the implementation of the system, firmly establish the system fence, and truly let the iron rules work and let the ban be powerful". With the increase in the number of case-handling matters decided by procurators, the risk of alienation and abuse of procuratorial power has increased significantly. Procuratorial organs must not only dare to supervise and be good at supervision, but also have the courage to supervise themselves, persist in turning their eyes inward, weaving a tightly woven cage of the system, ensuring that the procuratorial power is fair, standardized, efficient, and honest through restraint and supervision, and ensuring that every case is handled with high quality and efficiency through systems and mechanisms. Strengthen the leadership and oversight of higher-level procuratorates over lower-level procuratorates' case-handling, and consolidate the responsibility of chief procurators, procuratorial committees, department heads, and so forth for the supervision and management of procurators' performance of their duties. Pay close attention to key links that are prone to problems, such as non-arrest and non-prosecution, civil and administrative procuratorial supervision, and "add locks" to the operation of procuratorial power. Do a solid job of reverse review, focusing on reflecting on prominent issues in the performance of procuratorial duties from cases such as accusations and appeals, verdicts of acquittal, and withdrawal of prosecutions. Power and responsibility are two sides of the same coin, power must be responsible, responsibility must be assumed, and failure of responsibility must be investigated. The implementation and improvement of the judicial responsibility system aims to achieve a balance between power and responsibility, the unity of delegation of power and the management of power, and the combination of case management and management of people at a higher level. The attribution, identification, and pursuit of responsibility are a whole. It is necessary to coordinate the implementation of the Supreme People's Procuratorate's newly revised "Several Opinions on the Comprehensive and Accurate Implementation of the Judicial Responsibility System by the People's Procuratorates" and the "Regulations on the Pursuit of Judicial Responsibility of the People's Procuratorates", closely combine the implementation of responsibility, the determination of responsibility, and the pursuit of responsibility with operational management, case management, and quality management, improve mechanisms for the determination and pursuit of judicial responsibility, and substantively carry out the work of pursuing responsibility and punishment, and force and promote the high-quality and efficient handling of every case and every link.
(3) Improve the management of procuratorial operations
High-quality and efficient cases are handled, and scientific management is also inseparable. Procuratorial operations management, case management, and quality management should truly pay attention to and promote implementation in every case and every link. All professional management must follow the laws of judicial work, strictly follow the law, seek truth from facts, and make overall plans for "quality quantity" and "quantity with quantity" with greater emphasis on quality. Pay attention to the statistical and analytical role of business data, and cancel its assessment function. As the state's legal supervision organs and judicial organs that ensure the uniform and correct implementation of the state's laws, the procuratorial organs must at all times tighten the strings of "handling affairs according to law," establish a correct outlook on political achievements in supervising and handling cases, follow judicial laws, handle affairs in strict accordance with the provisions of the law, and do whatever is done according to the law, and have as many data as they should. The Supreme People's Procuratorate has made arrangements and is determined to correct the problems of relying only on data and indicators in evaluations, and even to deviate and engage in fraud, to adjust and change the habitual thinking of simply relying on the evaluation and management of data, and to abolish all unnecessary, inappropriate, and unreasonable evaluations, so as not to let procurators be trapped by data and burdened by evaluations. Continuously raise the level of modernization of procuratorial management, closely combine the function of macro analysis of data with the evaluation of micro cases, adjust the management method from paying too much attention to data management to paying more attention to operational management, case management, and quality management, and guide the vast number of procurators to pay attention to the high-quality and efficient handling of every case, and on every link of every case, so as to truly handle cases strictly in accordance with the law and administer justice fairly.
V. Conclusion
It is a high requirement to continue to handle every case with high quality and efficiency, and strive to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case. Procuratorial organs across the country should work together towards this goal, be realistic and pragmatic, take responsibility for practical work, continue to promote the procuratorial practice of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and better support and serve Chinese-style modernization with the modernization of procuratorial work.
This article is compiled by Comrade Ying Yong during the first class of the fall semester of the National Prosecutors College in September 2024.
(For the annotation and full text, see "People's Procuratorate" Issue 18, 2024)
Source: Supreme People's Procuratorate
Editor: Liu Jieying
First trial: Deng Mannan
Second trial: Zhang Yi
Third trial: Li Xiongxu
