On August 22, 2015, the 8th Summit Forum of Dacheng Criminal Department and Dacheng Criminal Service Committee was grandly held at Dacheng’s Beijing Office. The theme of the forum was “Chinese Criminal Proceedings Structure in Transformation—A Seminar on the Relationship of Investigation, Charging, Defending and Trial under the Trial-centric Vision”, co-sponsored by China University of Political Science and Law, Dacheng and Chinese Lawyer Periodical Office. Vice Dean of Law School, China University of Political Science and Law, Mr. Xu Shenjian presided over the opening ceremony of the conference and Vice President of China University of Political Science and Law, Mr. Feng Shiyong and Secretary of CPC Committee of Dacheng, Mr. Xiao Jinquan delivered opening speeches respectively. According to the theme, the conference included four units: pandect, relationship between investigating and defending, relationship between charging and defending and relationship between trial and defending, which were chaired by Mr. Xu Shenjian, Vice Dean of Law School, China University of Political Science and Law, Mr. Liu Guiming, Chief Editor of Democracy and Legal System Periodical Office, Mr. Li Haiwei, Deputy Secretary-General of All China Lawyers Association and President of Chinese Lawyer Periodical Office, Mr. Zhao Yunheng, Director of Criminal Department of Dacheng, respectively, and for which Mr. Fan Chongyi, Professor of China University of Political Science and Law, Mr. Xu Lanting, Deputy Director of Criminal Committee, All China Lawyers Association, Mr. Liu Weidong, Vice President of Beijing Lawyers Association, and Ms. Xue Shulan, former Vice President of Criminal Court I, the Supreme People’s Court made a conclusive speech for each unit, respectively. Finally, Mr. Liu Guiming, Chief Editor of Democracy and Legal System Periodical Office made a summary speech and Mr. Ma Jiangtao, Deputy Director of Standing Committee of Dacheng delivered a closing speech. For the conference, the leading experts and relevant leaders of the central and local political and legal sector, public security sector, procuratorial sector, court sector and other departments and more than 30 heavyweight guests from China University of Political Science and Law, Renmin University of China, Suzhou University, National Prosecutors College of P.R.C, Democracy and Legal System Periodical Office, All China Lawyers Association, Beijing Lawyers Association, Beijing King & Capital Law Firm and Beijing Shangquan Law Firm were invited to make subject speeches and comments, sharing with all the legal professionals their research findings and treasured experiences in the reform of criminal proceedings system. More than 70 representatives from Dacheng (HQ) and its local offices attended the conference. The conference was reported by a number of media, including People’s Daily, Xinhuanet, Legal Daily, China Youth Daily, Caijing Magazine, Beijing Times, Chinese Lawyer Magazine, ACLA.org.cn and was broadcast live with texts and graphs by on JCRB.com (live channel).

On August 20, 2015, the Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Justice held National Lawyers Conference in Beijing, at which Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Political and Judiciary Commission under the CPC Central Committee, Meng Jianzhu pointed out: the lawyer system is an important part of the law system of a country and an important symbol of progress of civilization of rule of law; judiciary personnel and lawyers have different duties, but they are all the important part of the socialist rule of law team and all bear the mission of protecting the legal rights of the concerned parties, safeguarding the correct implementation of law and promoting the social fairness and justice. Political-legal organs at all levels shall actively promote judiciary personnel and lawyers to structure a new relation for mutual respect, equal treatment, mutual support, mutual supervision, proper contact and benign interaction. They should jointly promote the progress of socialist civilization of rule of law. Meng Jianzhu required that as for safeguarding the practicing rights of lawyers, it is important to ascertain practically such practicing rights as right to know, right to apply, right to meet and communicate, right to go over  files, right to collect evidences and right to question in court hearing, and right to argue and defend, to which lawyers are entitled in defending and acting, as already provided by law. Create a better environment for lawyers to practice by perfecting all the segments of investigation, prosecution and trial and the mechanism of paying attention to the defending and acting opinions of lawyers, and improving the mechanism convenient for lawyers to participate in litigation.

The current Dacheng Criminal Forum was held at the right time, with the theme consistent with the content of National Lawyers Conference and with great foresight. The speeches made by the honored guests at the forum are rich in content, covering all the key topics of National Lawyers Conference, with an extremely huge amount of information, as is undoubtedly a grand banquet for professionals in the law sector.

It was the 8th criminal summit forum held by Dacheng. For the previous forums, honored guests were mostly from research institutes and colleges and law sector, but for the current forum, by taking advantage of the National Lawyers Conference, we went with the times and mostly invited a number of leading experts and relevant leaders from the central and local judicial and administrative organs. The honored guests from the central political and legal sector pointed out: the present litigation system is basically investigation-centric; in handling cases, the organs and personnel in charge of the cases have no idea that the collected evidences will be tested by court hearing and law, so the quality of evidences is generally not high. Sometimes, the procuratorial organs also failed to examine the evidences carefully, or discovered some problems in evidences, but straightforwardly handed the cases to the courts for judgment due to the great pressure of cases, and consequently the courts were in a dilemma of conviction and release. Therefore, it is of great significance to establish the trial-centric criminal proceedings structure. For the reform of trial-centric litigation system, it is necessary to change concepts and update consciousness and the judicial organs shall safeguard the practicing rights of lawyers. The honored guests from public security, procuratorate and court sectors made speeches freely, warmly and frankly, introducing separately about their work and the important measures being and to be undertaken, in terms of investigation, examination and prosecution and trial.

As the defenders in the investigation-defending relationship, prosecution-defending relationship and trial-defending relationship, Mr. Gao Zicheng, President of Beijing Lawyers Association, Ms. Chang Zheng, Director of Beijing Shangquan Law Firm, Ms. Liang Yali, Senior Partner of Beijing King & Capital Law Firm, Mr. Xu Xilong, Deputy Director of Criminal Department of Dacheng, and Mr. Li Xiaoming, Director of Criminal Department, Dacheng’s Suzhou Office made subject speeches on the three-party relationship, respectively from the angle of lawyers and with reference to their respective experiences in handling cases. Mr. Gao Zicheng, President of Beijing Lawyers Association proposed to establish the trade union of law professionals. For instance, the trade union of law professionals established jointly by procurators, judges and lawyers is an equal membership trade union. For instance, with judges, procurators, and lawyers acting as the president in turn, build an organization of equal relationship at the level of mechanism and psychology. Mr. Xu Xilong, Deputy Director of Criminal Department of Dacheng expressed that lawyers care more about how to substantially safeguard the right to defense of criminal suspects, especially at the stage of investigation, i.e., bail upon being under criminal arrest and when submitting, examining and approving the arrest, and the right to propose for necessity examination upon arrest. The first two are extremely important as well as most likely to be used; relatively, the probability of obtaining successfully a bail upon arresting is much lower. With the cases handled as the media, Mr. Xu presented vividly the practical difficulty of lawyers in the investigation-defense relationship, i.e.: the public security organ refuses the application of defending lawyers for a bail directly, without making any examination; when submitting to the people’s procuratorate for arrest, the public security organ does not give any notice to lawyers and it is extremely hard for lawyers to know about the time for the public security organ to submit for arrest; upon receiving a case, the investigation and supervision department of the people’s procuratorate practices differently in contacting the defender positively upon seeing relevant formalities of defense trusteeship; upon submitting the defending opinions, lawyers are not informed of whether such opinions are accepted. Mr. Xu proposed to establish an institution within the investigation organ to hold the hearing on bail and listen to the opinions of defending lawyers in detail before making any decision, as will save the judicial resources to some extent as well as safeguard the legal rights of criminal suspects to the maximum. Also for trying the necessity of detain, it is necessary to set an operational procedure for substantial trial on and reply to the application of defenders. The investigation organ may set up a window online for defending lawyers to enquire about the progress so that the defenders can timely know about the time of submitting for examination and arrest in a case and exercise more promptly the right to defend; with the formalities of defense trusteeship and contact methods of defenders in the case files, the people’s procuratorate may, upon receipt of any case for examination and arrest, positively inform the defenders, and, after the defenders put forward their opinions, inform the defenders of whether to accept such opinions. At present, the top design of judicial reform is not yet available, but some detailed problems as mentioned above may be resolved first like appearing in court in informal dress so that lawyers can perform the duty of defending at the stage of investigation. In the opinion of Mr. Xu, whether the right of lawyers to defend can be practically assured determines the results of the judicial reform to certain extent.

The honored guests from public security organs indicated that many measures of safeguarding the rights of lawyers are being and will be implemented so that the guidelines and slogans formed at the 4th Plenary Meeting of the CPC Central Committee and National Lawyers Conference can be actualized. For instance, with trial as the center, more attention and respect is given to the standard for decisions of courts and more respect is given to the court hearing activities; unify the standard of evidences and base on the evidences required by courts and the standard that courts consider the facts to be clear and evidences to be actually adequate; intensify the sense of judges from “suspecting a crime with light punishment” to “suspecting a crime without punishment”; pay attention to the exclusion of illegal evidences; give adequate play to the absolute and key role of court hearing in affirming factual evidences, protecting the right to plead, and punishing crimes; “judge responsibility system”; carry out and implement the publicity of trial process, judgment documents and execution information; carry out the information construction for case handling so that the case handling system will be more transparent and open; advance the “code for the administration of public security enforcement”; build the communication platform for lawyers of individual cases with public security organ; meeting appointment system, lawyers can meet without any appointment; cases are generally examined and verified and generally output by the legal governance department; police officers association, procurators association, judges association and lawyers association establish the regular joint meeting and communication mechanism; study and draft the institutional code for safeguarding the practicing rights of lawyers and bring forward some improvement measures and internal working mechanism for the problems observed in practices of lawyers’ right to appeal and accuse and right to meet; from investigation and prosecution to trial, attention should be given to the opinions of arguing and defending; to make a judgment, courts shall respond to the defending opinions; in court, lawyers’ presentation shall not be interrupted at random; the prosecutors and defenders shall have equal time for presentation. These measures pleased and encouraged incomparably the lawyers present at the conference.

On the other hand, the honored guests from the political and legal sector also required the lawyers to continuously improve their service capacity and vocational level. Vocational level covers not only service level, but also morality; Advocacy of innocence shall not be launched without seeing the evidences and facts, but according to law. Lawyers should defend effectively, without bringing into play at random, and propose defending opinions of high quality with reasons and ground. Lawyers should defend rationally and placidly, respect judges without making any personal abuse to judges. Additionally, the honored guests from the court sector also emphasized that it is currently said that courts attach no importance to the defending opinions of lawyers, but it is actually not true, for courts attach great importance to the opinions of lawyers, especially some major complicated and disputed cases which will be studied repeatedly after court hearing. Therefore, lawyers are recommended to prepare proper and high-level pleadings. Mr. Xu Ping, Director of Dacheng Professional Committee of Criminal Business responded properly to the requirements of the honored guests from the political and legal sector, for his presentation was titled as “What can lawyers do in improving the prosecution-defending relationship?” In the opinion of Mr. Xu Ping, in most of the cases, lawyers often exist as furnishings in the criminal proceedings and the phenomena of programmed court hearing are very serious. The ideal state of “prosecution-defending equality and mediate judgment” is basically not achieved in present judicial practices. Even though the reality is cruel, lawyers still have to do something. Firstly, respect the judicial officials; secondly, position themselves as the helpers of judicial officials, for instance, preparing the legal bases and searching cases of the same nature nationwide, paying attention to expression of written opinions, carrying out in-depth studies on professional issues, and introducing new analytical techniques; thirdly, don’t be discouraged in failure, and keep confident and firm.

In the meanwhile, the honored guests present also mentioned that such topic as the trial-centric criminal procedure structure is actually not a new concept, which has been provided early in the criminal procedure law. It is still emphasized at the 4th Plenary Meeting of the CPC Central Committee and National Lawyers Conference, mainly because the legal provisions are not implemented and the trial-centric is alienated to file-centric and investigation-centric. Many problems are not due to legislation, but execution, while the most fundamental reason for difficulty of execution is that the change of ideas requires a process. Therefore, lawyers will take a heavy burden and embark on a long road! Just like the conclusion made by Professor Fan Chongyi of China University of Political Science and Law: at present, for the reform of trial-centric proceeding system, a common view has been reached at different meetings; it will be an issue at the second stage as for what to do, how to reform institutionally and how to reform the system in future. Many things need to developed and gradually carried out and implemented along with time. To carry out the trial-centric reform, we need to distinguish the short-term planning and long-term planning. Why is reform required? Why is it not carried out though there are documents already? The key problem is the problem with the methodology and world outlook of judicial personnel. The judge-centered structure with prosecution-defending-trial separation is historically natural and the rule is irresistible. To discuss on the structural issue, it should be understood according to the judicial rule and the trend of historical development. In the future development of Chinese criminal procedure, we shall insist on taking the proper legal procedure as the guiding idea and thought so that such new prosecution-defending relationship can have a reliable base. Professor Fan Chongyi also pointed out: in view of lawyers’ status, firstly, it is necessary to understand lawyers as a reliable force, important force and trustable force and a main force; secondly, it is necessary to be firm; thirdly, it is necessary to do something. It should be firmly believed that lawyers hold a status of main force in the construction of a rule of law country! The basic position of lawyers in the present prosecution-defending relationship, prosecution-trial relationship and defending-trial relationship is main force! If it is regarded as the mutual collaboration between off-institution and in-institution, such practice is in violation against the basic principle of procedure. In his presentation, Professor Pan Chongyi made a strategically advantageous position and enlightened the ignorance of others! It is a flag erected for the force of hundreds and thousands of lawyers. The lawyers were excited and strengthen their sense of mission and responsibility to establish a fair and just judicial environment.

During the conference, the first book Practices for Defense in Bribery Cases and the second book Release in Court-Selected Successful Cases for Advocacy of Innocence of the Dacheng Criminal Defense Series edited by Dacheng were already published, which were presented by the meeting affairs group to the leaders, experts, honored guests and participants present at the conference and were highly praised.

The conference was successfully completed. The guests and friends in presence unanimously viewed that it is an ideological confrontation and collision between experts, scholars and famous lawyers from the institutions of law science and law-practicing sector, and is of great significance for promoting the level of theoretical research on investigation, prosecution, defense and trial and promoting the law vocational community and vocational positioning. More preciously, the lawyers of criminal defense enhanced the exchange with police officers, procurators and judges, understood, from different prospects, the keypoints and working modes and methods of investigation, examination and prosecution and trial sectors in practice and reduced the conflict and separation between them to certain extent, laying a hint of understanding and supporting for future contacts.

On the following day, the full 8th edition of Beijing Times covered the major contents of the conference, with the title of China Intends to Build a Platform for Communication Between Lawyers and Police. Additionally, other mediums and websites will also publish special reports for the conference, which are under preparation. Especially, Democracy and Legal System will also publish a special coverage. With its high level, frontier and grounding, the conference achieved an excellent social effect and rule of law effect.