The international symposium on challenges of criminal trials was successfully held during July 9-15 2017 in Freiburg, Germany. At the invitation of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hans-Jörg Albrecht, director of Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (“MPI”), Prof. Dr. Baosheng Zhang, co-chair of the Collaborative Innovation Center of Judicial Civilization（“CICJC”）, Prof. Dr. Liling Yue, Prof. Dr. Zongzhi Long, associate Prof. Dr. Shanshan Zhao, Dr. He Huang and Dr. Jing Lin attended the symposium.

More than 30 scholars and experts attended the symposium, including Prof. Albrecht, Prof. Dr. Bjorn Ahl from the University of Cologne, Prof. Dr. Sabine Gless from the University of Basel, Professor Dr. Georg Michael Gesk from the University of Osnabrück, senior researcher Dr. Michael Kilchling form the MPI, senior researcher Dr. Marc Engelhart from the MPI, as well as other visiting scholars and institute researchers.

 

 

Professor Albrecht gave a warm welcome to the Chinese delegation as well as other guests and expressed that the MPI attaches great importance to the partnership with the CICJC and China University of Political Science and Law. Communication and cooperation between the MPI and Chinese scholars have been remarkably increasing since the establishment of the CICJC sub center in Germany - “Center for Chinese Legal Studies” at MPI Freiburg.

 

 

The atmosphere of the symposium was very lively, and many guests expressed their understandings and opinions, and asked meaningful questions which were answered patiently by the Chinese delegation.

 

 

Professor Dr. Baosheng Zhang delivered a thirty-minute English speech titled “Rethinking Chinese Evidence Theories and Reconstructing the System of Evidence”.

 

 

 

Professor Dr. Liling Yue made a thirty-minute English speech titled “Challenges of Criminal Trials”.

Professor Dr. Zongzhi Long gave a thirty-minute English speech titled “Rethinking “Yinzheng” (Corroboration)”.

Associate Professor Dr. Shanshan Zhao delivered a thirty-minute English speech titled “Reflection on the Procedure of Cross-examination on the Statement of a Victim in Court”.

Dr. He Huang gave a thirty-minute English speech titled “The Crisis of Judicial Credibility and the Reform of Jury System in China”.

 

 

 

On July 10, the delegation of CICJC visited the library of MPI, accompanied by Ms. Elisabeth Martin, the head of the library. Afterwards, they visited the German sub center of CICJC, and paid a visit to Dr. Jing Lin, a senior researcher of Max Planck Institute, also a researcher at the Center for Chinese Legal Studies. 

 

 

On the morning of July 13, the delegation visited Freiburg prison for serious crimes. The warden, Mr. Michael Völkel, introduced details about the prison, including the configuration of the prison, its function division, different types of criminals and the arrangement of their daily life, relatives visiting, laboring, and studying and so on. 

On the afternoon of July 13, the delegation visited the Procuratorate of Baden-Wurttemberg State and was warmly welcomed by the State Chief Procurator, Mr. Dieter Inhofe. A two-hour symposium was held between the two parties, during which the chief procurator introduced the system settings of their procuratorate, basic operating process, material data statistics and the key problems in routine work. In addition, the delegation introduced the basic situation of China’s judicial system and judicial reform to the procurator.

 

 

(text: Jing Lin)