中国最高审判体制的刑民分立——传统与现代化

The Separation of Criminal Divisions and Civil Divisions of the Highest Judicial System in China: Tradition and Modernization

当代最高人民法院刑事审判部门与以民事为代表的其他审判部门呈现出明显分立。中国最高审判体制的刑民分立由来已久,从先秦发生刑民区分后,刑事审判与民事审判逐渐走向分流;“重情”案件与“细故”案件在审判程序上截然两分,死刑复核成为最高审判机关的核心职能。清末以来,近代中国移植了德日司法制度,最高审判机关的刑民审判体制走向合流;在清末“就地正法”制度与民国“惩治盗匪”特别立法下,死刑核准权先后部分“下放”给地方。1949年以来的最高人民法院的审判体制逐渐从“刑重民轻”走向“刑民并重”;在收回死刑复核权与改革民事再审制度后,刑民案件数量先后膨胀;最近启动的完善四级法院职能定位改革,可能会加剧最高审判机关的刑民分立。未来司法改革应考虑最高审判体制的刑民平衡,以及传统与现代的协调问题。

In the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China(SPC),the institution of criminal adjudication is highly separated from civil adjudication.The separation between the criminal and the civil trial system has a long tradition in China.Since the pre-Qin period,the trial system of criminal and civil cases has gradually moved towards separation,and the trial procedure of‘specific serious’and‘minor disputes’cases is completely divided,to review the death penalty was the most important function of the supreme judicial organ.Since the late Qing Dynasty,China transplanted a‘German-Japanese’trial system,and the criminal and civil trial systems of the supreme judicial organ show a trend of converging.With the specific laws of‘Jiudizhengfa’(execution on the spot)and‘Bandit Punishment’,the power to review the death penalty has been partially empowered to the local authority.Since 1949,the judicial system of the Supreme People’s Court has gradually changed from‘criminal case is more important than the civil one’to‘criminal and civil cases are equally important’;after the revocation of the power to review the death penalty and the reform of civil retrial system,the number of criminal and civil cases influx into the SPC.Recently,the SPC launched a reform which might exacerbate the separation of criminal divisions and civil divisions.The judicial reform should also consider the balance between the criminal divisions and civil divisions,and the coordination between tradition and modernization.