从检察听证到刑事审前程序诉讼化

From Prosecution Hearing to Judicialization of Pretrial Criminal Procedure

随着检察听证的广泛适用,刑事审前程序的诉讼化改造目标似乎触手可及。然而,结合具体案例却不难发现,审前听证机制的运作尚不具备充分的司法化特质。一方面,作为民意代表的听证员难以亲身接触第一手证据材料,参与案件评议流于表面;另一方面,辩论主义原则并未取得优于司法公开及程序参与等理念的主导地位,导致实质化属性的缺失。由此,听证程序事实上仍依附于书面审的固有习惯,无法承担司法决策的核心场域功能。究其原因,除了制度创设初衷层面的另有所图,传统的诉讼结构影响以及办案主体行为惯性的制约均不容忽视。但不可否认的是,检察听证的客观存在确实提供了一条通往刑事审前程序诉讼化的捷径。

With the wide application of procuratorial hearing,the goal of reforming the pre-trial criminal procedure seems to be within easy reach.However,the pretrial procuratorial hearing,if closely examined through specific cases,is found to possess no adequate qualities of the criminal procedure.On the one hand,its hearing personnel,though as the representatives of public opinion,can hardly contact the first-hand evidences,and hence their participation in case review is superficial.On the other hand,in its process the doctrine of adversary hearing fails to prevail over the idea of judicial openness and procedural participation.Therefore,such a procuratorial hearing system,still attached to the entrenched habit of written review,cannot fulfill the core function of pretrial judicial decision-making.The underlying reasons are due to the other purpose in its original institutional design,the influence of traditional judicial structure and the hard-to-be ignored habitual behavior of the case-handling subjects.However,undeniably it does point to a shortcut to reform the pretrial criminal procedures in China.