On May 30th, 2016, under the guidance of Ms. Wei Xining from the Law School of Peking University, the students of LL.M. Program and Exchange Programs visited a criminal trial in Beijing Haidian District Court. Students, accompanied by the staff personnel of the court, watched the whole process of criminal trial and excitedly and profoundly communicate with the judge.

At first, students visit the hall of the court in which the statues of Constitution of the People’s Republic of China in Chinese, English, Russian, French and Spanish stand. The statues are very grand and magnificent, which represents the role of Constitution that it is fundamental and has supreme legal authority.

Then, students walk into the tribunal and watch the criminal trial host by Judge Yang and his collegial panel. The court clerk is the first one present in the tribunal and announce the discipline that spectators shall observe. Then, the chief judge and collegial panel start the trial. The collegial panel secretly discuss the case after investigation, cross-examination, debate and defendant’s statement. At last, the chief judge declares the ruling. After the trial, the chief judge introduces the details of the case, criminal judicial procedure and judicial systemin China. The last part of this visiting is Q&A session. Students try to seek for the differences between their own countries' criminal law and Chinese one. A lot of students put forward questions regarding the finding of the case, collegial panel, jurisdiction, the application of criminal law, the criteria of conviction and sentencing. The judge in chief answers these questions as elaborately as possible. At the same time, he also introduces the system of criminal penalty, Judges and judicial reformation and so on.

After visiting the criminal trial, the students further know criminal judicial procedure and judicial system in China.