权力归于人民：“检察审查会”震撼日本

Lloyd

于2010-08-10 22:46:37翻译 | 已有631人浏览

在日本，一般市民组成的类似陪审团的组织——检察审查会，正在通过行使对检察官不起诉决定的审查权，在刑事诉讼中发挥举足轻重的作用。

In Japan, prosecutors have long stood as symbols of absolute authority. Their decisions on whether to indict someone have mostly been unappealable. Meanwhile, a vote to indict someone in Japan is tantamount to a conviction –  more than 99% of those indicted ultimately receive guilty verdicts.

在日本，检察官长期以来都象征着绝对的权威。他们是否起诉犯罪嫌疑人的决定大部分情况下都是不可上诉的。同时，在日本，检察官的起诉决定几乎与有罪判决无异——因为超过99%的起诉决定最终都能获得有罪判决。

But all that’s starting to change, thanks to a decision made last year by the Japanese government to give court-appointed citizens’ panels the power to examine prosecutors’ decisions. The grand-jury-like panels now have the power to overrule prosecutors. Click here for the WSJ story, by Yuka Hayashi.

但日本政府去年决定将审查检察官决定的权力赋予法院指定的检察审查会。由于这一决定，所有这些都正在发生变化。如今审查会就像大陪审团，有了否决检察官决定的大权。点击此处阅读林由佳（Yuka Hayashi）为华尔街日报撰写的报道。

Hayashi writes that the new panel system came into effect in May of last year, but received attention only in the past few months when it started to deliver highly influential rulings. The cases included a campaign-fund scandal involving Ichiro Ozawa, a senior ruling-party member and one of the most powerful politicians in decades, and a major train accident where the roles of railway executives were questioned.

林由佳写道，新的审查会体制于去年5月起正式实施，但只是在过去几个月才开始引起人们注意，那时审查会开始做出一些极具影响力的决定。这些案件包括牵涉资深执政党成员，几十年来最有权势的政治家之一——小泽一郎的选举献金丑闻案；一起重大铁路事故案，该案使人们质疑铁路公司的社长们对事故的发生是否负有责任。（当指JR西日本历代三名社长因火车脱轨事件遭起诉一事。——译者注）

The 11-member citizens’ panels were created in the late 1940s by the U.S.-led occupational government to provide checks and balances to prosecutors. The model was the grand-jury system in the U.S.

由11名一般市民组成的审查会最早是美国为首的占领当局在20世纪40年代创设的，其目的是制衡检察官的权力。它的原型是美国的大陪审团制度。

The panel’s original mandate was to examine prosecutors’ decisions, but its decisions weren’t binding and were routinely ignored by the prosecutors. So, the panels worked in obscurity for decades.

审查会最初的职责是审查检察官的决定，但审查会的决定不具约束力，且经常被检察官无视。因此，审查会默默无闻地运作了几十年。

Under the new system, the ordinary citizen has more clout. A panel looks only at cases where prosecutors have decided not to indict someone, not where they have already moved to indict. But a panel can force an indictment after two consecutive rulings by ordering a court-appointed lawyer to file one, bypassing prosecutors.

在新的体制下，一般市民拥有了更大的影响力。审查会仅对检察官决定不起诉的案件进行审查，而不涉及已经决定起诉的案件。但审查会连续两次作出起诉决定，便可绕过检方，而强制一名法院指定的律师提起公诉。

The case involving Ozawa is particularly controversial because the panel’s decisions could lead to an indictment and effectively end his career. A decision is expected as early as September. Prosecutors twice decided not to indict him. The panel’s decision in April forced them to reopen the probe.

由于小泽一郎案件中审查会的决定能够导致公诉，继而成功断送其政治生涯，因此该案变得极具争议。是否起诉的决定早在9月份便应作出。检察官两次决定不起诉小泽一郎。审查会于4月作出决定，强制检方重启对该案的侦查。

The citizens’ panels gained strength during the effort to curb the power of the legal bureaucracy and give ordinary citizens more say. Last year, Japan introduced a jury system for the first time in major criminal cases. That followed a change in the bar-exam system that helped increase the number of lawyers in the country.

在抑制司法官僚的权力，并将更大的话语权赋予一般市民的努力过程中，检察审查会获得了力量。去年，日本首次在重大刑事案件的审理中引入陪审团制度。并随即对司法考试制度进行改革，以壮大该国的律师队伍。