庭前会议的功能定位与实践反思--以B市40个刑事案件为样本

按照刑事诉讼法和相关规范性文件的设定,刑事庭前会议主要解决程序性争议,基本功能是归纳控辩争议焦点,确定法庭调查范围;拓展功能衍生为推动案件繁简分流,规范撤回起诉程序,协商确定审判方式。通过对B市40个刑事案件的实证分析发现,庭前会议解决程序性争议的功能有限,庭前会议与庭审程序的关系不明,"大庭前会议、小庭审程序"现象值得警惕,制度设计与实践操作存在一定的紧张关系。未来要谨防庭前会议替代、削弱正式庭审,避免辩护权弱化、庭审虚化等不良倾向,回归庭前会议功能,推动庭审实质化。

Functions of Pretrial Conference and Some Practice-based Reflection:Taking 40 Criminal Cases in City B as Samples

According to the criminal procedure law and relevant normative documents, the criminal pretrial conference mainly solves procedural disputes, and its basic function is to summarize the disputed issues between the prosecution and the defense, and to determine the scope of court investigation. The extended function of pretrial conference is to clarify cases into complicated and simple cases, standardize the prosecution withdrawal procedures, and determine the trial mode through consultation. Through the empirical analysis of 40 criminal cases in B city, it is found that pretrial conference has its limitations in resolving procedural disputes and the relationship between pretrial conference and trial procedure remains unclear. Special attention needs to be paid to the phenomenon of "long pretrial conference and short trial procedure". There is some tension between system design and practical operation. Court hearing cannot be replaced or weakened by pretrial conference, and the adverse tendency of weakening the right to defense and court hearing should be avoided. Court hearing should be given higher priority than pretrial conference.