通向司法民主：人民陪审员法的功能定位及其优化路径

我国人民陪审员法的功能定位是在司法领域贯彻中国共产党的群众路线和实现司法民主,公民有序、有效地参与司法是司法民主的应有之义,也是实现司法民主的必由之路,陪审制的制度设计应体现“平民化”。人民陪审员制度属于参审制,陪审员和法官在审判权上无分工,都具有事实认定权和法律适用权。由于陪审员缺少法律知识和专业训练,难以实现有效参审,不能消除“陪而不审”的痼疾。为发挥陪审员参审实质作用,在制度设计和运行中着力提升陪审员法律素质,在选任上“精英化”,都使得陪审员“法官化”,偏离了司法民主的方向。人民陪审员法体现了陪审员“平民化”的倾向,有利于实现司法民主,但也存在适用范围过大、事实和法律区分不明等问题,应建立和完善配套制度,逐步实现人民陪审员只参与事实认定问题。

Towards Democracy in Justice: Function Orientation and Optimization Path of People's Juror Law

The function of the people’s juror law in China is to implement the mass focus of the Communist Party of China and realize judicial democracy. Citizens’ participation in judicature in an orderly and effective way is the proper meaning of judicial democracy. The design of the jury system should reflect citizen popularity. The system of people’s assessors belongs to the trial system.The people’s jurors have the right of fact identifiction and the right to apply the law. As jurors have little legal knowledge and professional training, it is difficult to participate in effective trial. In the design and operation of the system, improving the juridical qualities of jurors deviate from the direction of judicial democracy.The people’s juror law embodies the tendency of “being civilians” for jurors, and is conducive to the realization of judicial democracy. We should establish and improve the supporting system and gradually reach the stage that the people’s jurors only participate in the fact identification.