浅析刑事和解理念对辩诉交易制度的启示——以被害人为视角

辩诉交易制度与刑事和解制度是欧美刑事案件中适用的两类重要的司法制度。两种制度有其相似的地方,也有诸多的不同。其中一点便是刑事诉讼的被害人在两种制度中的地位和作用有着较大的差别。而两者的共同基础———社会契约理论和私法中契约自由的观念,以及辩诉交易制度在实际运作过程中可能出现的问题使得辩诉交易借鉴刑事和解的理念,加强被害人的地位和作用成为可能和必要。     

确立中国式辩诉交易程序之研讨

随着社会、经济的发展,犯罪率不断上升,刑事案件越来越多。由于各种条件的限制,导致了刑事积案与日俱增。为了及时处理积案和集中力量查处大案,美、德、意等国家的法律规定了辩诉交易程序。我们应从中国国情出发,本着“洋为中用”原则,对国外辩诉交易的发展、辩诉交易与简易程序的关系进行研究,确立中国式辩诉交易程序。     

珍视正当程序,拒绝辩诉交易

辩诉交易是特定条件之下才能正常运行并且倍受争议的一项制度 ,多数国家都对它采取了极其谨慎的态度 ,它不符合中国的法律精神和司法实际 ,也不是解决刑讯逼供、超期羁押等问题的适当手段 ,如果引入 ,会对侦查、起诉和审判制度形成强烈冲击 ,破坏正在逐步完善的程序法制 ,加剧司法腐败。因此 ,中国法不应当、也没有必要采用辩诉交易制度。     

解读美国辩诉交易制度

辩诉交易虽源于英国 ,但却在美国发扬光大 ,成为美国刑事司法最具特色的制度之一。只有比较全面准确地了解辩诉交易制度的来龙去脉、实施情况、存在的问题以及对辩诉交易的各种评价之后 ,才能根据我国的法制环境进一步研究是否引入 ,如何引入的问题。     

Plea bargaining: An organizational perspective

A microlevel analysis of factors affecting the decision to plead guilty in felony trial courts in Chicago in 1972 and 1973 is presented. The court system is viewed from an organizational perspective, and guilty pleas are analyzed in light of the court's overall design for disposing of its workload. Operational definitions of the concepts introduced are presented, and multiple regression is used to analyze some of the hypothesized relationships. The implications of the findings, from an organizational perspective and for some of the issues of plea bargaining, are discussed.     

如何看待被告人有罪答辩——辩诉交易的一点启示

美国辩诉交易制度中的合理因素 ,可以为我国刑事司法实践中正确等待被告人有答辩提供借鉴。应当更新诉讼理念 ,将认罪答辩视为被告人作为诉讼主体对刑事程序运作方式的一种选择 ,建立激励被告人自愿作出有罪答辩的机制 ,对此类案件可简化诉讼程序 ,同时应建立对被告人有罪答辩自愿性明智性的审查机制。     

To Waive or Not to Waive: The Right to Trial and Plea Bargaining

Criminal defendants in many countries are faced with a dilemma: If they waive their right to trial and plead guilty, they typically receive charge or sentence reductions in exchange for having done so. If they exercise their right to trial and are found guilty, they often receive stiffer sanctions than if they had pled guilty. I characterize the former as ‘waiver rewards’ and the latter as ‘non-waiver penalties.’ After clarifying the two and considering the relation between them, I briefly explicate the grounds for a moral right to trial. I then assess the defensibility of such rewards and penalties. In addition to considering whether waiver rewards and non-waiver penalties serve the aims of legal punishment, I address the three main arguments for permitting them. The first suggests that defendants willing to plead display more remorse for their crimes and thus are deserving of lighter sentences. The second defends waiver rewards and non-waiver penalties in cases where prosecutors are alleged to know that defendants are guilty but face problems establishing their guilt at trial. The third holds that guilty defendants who are willing to plead conserve scarce state resources and should be rewarded for it, whereas those unwilling to plead squander such resources and should be penalized accordingly. I contend that none of these arguments provides persuasive grounds for waiver rewards or non-waiver penalties, even on the assumption that we can distinguish those defendants who should waive their right to trial from those who should not. This conclusion presents a fundamental challenge to contemporary plea bargaining practices.

德国辩诉交易的实践与启示

在德国,辩诉交易制度完全是实践中自发的产物。德国辩诉交易实践的形态、产生、争论及相关司法判决和改革草案的分析表明,辩诉交易已经成为德国解决刑事案件的方式之一,这种方式的出现回应了德国刑事诉讼的特点及其面临的困境,同时也缩小了两大诉讼模式的差距,呈现了世界范围内体系差异而解决方式一致的诉讼规律。德国辩诉交易实践表明,在我国建立基于被告人认罪而迅速结案继而获得刑罚减轻的结案方式成为可能。     

Plea decision-making: the influence of attorney expertise,trustworthiness, and recommendation

ABSTRACT

Attorney recommendations influence defendant plea decisions; and the degree of influence likely rests on the perceived trustworthiness and level of expertise of the attorney (factors of source credibility). We explored attorney source credibility factors and how these characteristics influence defendants’ plea decision-making. MTurk participants read a hypothetical plea scenario and were asked to imagine themselves as the defendant in a DWI/DUI case making a plea decision; in the scenario, we manipulated the defense attorney’s level of trustworthiness, expertise, and plea recommendation. There was a significant interaction between attorney recommendation and trustworthiness on defendants’ plea decisions; participants who were advised to accept the guilty plea were more likely to plead guilty when the attorney was high in trustworthiness compared to low in trustworthiness. Attorney trustworthiness did not affect plea decisions for defendants advised to reject the guilty plea. Importantly, attorney trustworthiness affected defendants’ decision to follow the attorney’s recommendation and ultimate plea decision (regardless of expertise), and attorney expertise affected defendants’ confidence in their decision (regardless of trustworthiness). Results suggest individual-level characteristics of defense attorneys affect the influence of the attorney and their recommendation, and ultimately defendants’ plea decision-making.     

证据开示·沉默权·辩诉交易关系论——兼评中国司法改革若干问题

任何一项法律制度的构建,不仅要考虑该制度与现行法律制度的配套与衔接,而且还要研究与该制度相关的共生制度的设计与协调。“辩诉交易”、“证据开示”和“沉默权”是刑事诉讼程序构建的三个孪生兄弟,中国控辩协商制度的构建要求必须建立完善的证据开示制度和明示的沉默权制度,否则,辩诉交易的引进与移植,就如同澳大利亚的牧场主开始从南美洲只引进了“仙人掌”而忽视了“夜蝴蝶”一般。     

正义是有代价的——论我国刑事司法中的辩诉交易兼论一种新的诉讼观

辩诉交易是理性的诉讼当事人即控辩双方基于较大的诉讼风险以及昂贵的诉讼成本 ,发现进行交易更符合他们的利益 ,从而达成一致 ,选择退出诉讼 ,打断诉讼进程并获得相应收益的“辩诉和解”。在我国目前的国情下 ,为防止和减少辩诉交易的负面效应 ,在制度设计和操作中应当更为谨慎。     

Incentives, criminal defence lawyers and plea bargaining

Plea bargaining has become a central feature of criminal procedure in Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions. This paper explores an area seldom discussed in the economic literature on plea bargaining: the influence of the defence lawyer's fee contract on the terms of the bargain. In particular, it uses data from one jurisdiction of the impact on case trajectories of changes in publicly funded defence lawyers’ contracts to test the proposition that the nature of the lawyer's contract influences how cases are managed. An event study methodology on a pooled time-series cross-section data set of case trajectories before and after the change in the nature of the contract is used to examine whether the new payment regime significantly changed the trajectories of cases through the summary criminal justice system. Overall the results seem to suggest that the behaviour of defence lawyers may be influenced by financial incentives. This implies that the terms of plea bargains reached between prosecution and defence lawyers may be affected by the defence lawyer's remuneration contract. Consequently, the authors conclude that the role of defence lawyers has been under-researched in the literature on the economics of plea bargaining.     

Fragmentation of licensing right, bargaining and the tragedy of the anti-commons

This paper investigates how the fragmentation of licensing right and bargaining affect the occurrence of the “tragedy of anti-commons” in the procedure of enterprise licensing. As found in this paper, if no bargaining is allowed, then greater fragmentation of licensing right can cause greater tragedy of the anti-commons. However, the bargaining between the bureaucracies and enterprise can greatly ease or even eliminate the tragedy of the anti-common under public information, but the relative bargaining power and the extent of fragmentation will affect the distribution of total surplus between the enterprise and the bureaucracies. Yet in the case of private information, bargaining itself may not work efficiently, and interestingly, lower fragmentation of licensing right might enhance the efficiency loss of bargaining, instead of easing the tragedy of the anti-commons.

Plea bargaining and appraisals of eyewitness evidence by prosecutors and defense attorneys

A sample of defense attorneys and prosecutors from matched California counties participated in a two-part study. Study 1A reports the results of a survey regarding how influential each of the 17 eyewitness factors is in affecting the accuracy of real eyewitness identifications. Generally, both attorney groups considered all eyewitness factors to be influential; on only 6 of the 17 factors were defense attorneys more likely than prosecutors to provide higher importance ratings. In Study 1B, the attorneys answered questions regarding their willingness to plea bargain after reading each of four scenarios in which (1) same- versus cross-race identification and (2) whether the perpetrator was familiar were experimentally manipulated. Both eyewitness factors influenced plea bargaining decisions, and effects were generally consistent for both attorney groups. Results confirm that plea bargaining decisions at least by defense attorneys are made ‘in the shadow of the trial,’ and that appraisals of the strength of eyewitness evidence play a significant role in these decisions.     

Explaining corruption: An institutional choice approach

The end of the Cold War, thestrengthening of world democracy, and the advancement of neoliberaleconomic reforms, have exposed corruption as a major world problem andspawned a plethora of international and national anti-corruption programs. Past theorizing has increased our knowledge about corruption, however, aninterdisciplinary (political, economic, cultural) theory of the causes ofpolitical corruption has never emerged. This article develops amiddle-range interdisciplinary theory of the causes of corruption builtthrough employment of an institutional choice analytic frame. The analyticframe draws on the Institutional Analysis and Development work of ElinorOstrom, Roy Gardner, & James Walker, and the constructivist work ofNicholas Onuf. The resultant theory is advanced through a statisticalanalysis. The article concludes that ongoing international and nationalanti-corruption programs will likely fail unless they include reforms to stateinternal power structures and political cultures.     

Situational deterrence and claim padding: results from a randomized field experiment

While it is generally argued that threats of legal sanctions are more effective with offenders involved in economic crimes than with delinquents committing more conventional crimes, such an affirmation rests on weak empirical evidence. Also, most studies supporting this proposition were conducted with non-experimental designs, thus, undermining the interval validity of the results. On the other hand, studies base their predictions on individual factors and do not incorporate contextual factors. To overcome those limitations, a randomized field experiment was implemented in four insurance companies to incorporate contextual factors into the dynamics of deterrence. This study assessed the effect of a written threat (a deterrent letter reminding insured persons of the punishment for insurance fraud) on claim padding behaviours of insured persons filing claims for residential theft. A deterrent-letter project was implemented in four insurance companies, with claims randomly assigned to the experimental or the control group. Cases belonging to the control group were managed as usual, while individuals in the experimental group received the written threat. The experimental design made sure that the deterrent stimulus was exactly delivered to the insured persons when they had the opportunity to exaggerate the value of their claims. Findings demonstrate that claimants in the experimental group were less likely to pad their claims than were those in the control group. The letter was effective, regardless of the means of delivery. In conclusion, the administration of a written threat at the moment of criminal opportunity appears to be an effective strategy for preventing economic crimes.

The new economics of the university: a knowledge governance approach

University is becoming a cornerstone of the new emerging mode of governance of the generation and dissemination of knowledge as it reveals remarkable institutional advantages both in providing a solution to the knowledge trade-off and in reducing agency costs. The typical academic labor relationship emerges as an appropriate institutional device to handle the principal-agent problems when creative talents are required. The unique quasi-hierarchical setup of the academic system creates a supply of certified skills that are ready to operate on a professional basis. Such academic consultants can be paid on an ex-post per job basis matching only their variable costs. This supply leads to the creation of a specific market for research services where the demand is provided by the knowledge outsourcing of corporations. For this system to work effectively the non-exclusivity of intellectual property rights on the results of the research performed under contract is necessary. Non-exclusivity in academic employment relations should parallel non-exclusivity in knowledge ownership.

Race,Plea, and Charge Reduction: An Assessment of Racial Disparities in the Plea Process

With the growing recognition of the salience of prosecutorial discretion, attention to biases in the earlier phases of case processing is increasing. Still, few studies have considered the influence of defendant race and race/sex within the plea process. The present study uses a sample of felony cases to assess the influence of race and race/sex on the mode of disposition, similarities and differences in the factors that predict the likelihood of a plea across race, and potential racial disparities in the plea value received pertaining to a charge reduction. The findings suggest that blacks, and black males in particular, are less likely to plea, and are expected to receive a lower value for their plea. Also, the factors that predict the likelihood of a plea are substantively different across race. Conditioning effects of race and sex are found in the likelihood of a plea and probabilities of a charge reduction.