Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure; the Ministry of Justice asserted blended litigation

Source: Liberty Times 11/03/2001
Translated by Joanne Lue

　The Legislative Yuan recently passed the first examination of the bill of amendments to Article 161 and Article 163 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.  Yesterday the Ministry of Justice (“MOJ”) drafted a convincing statement to explain, from the legal viewpoint, that a prosecutor’s burden of proof is not contradictory to a court’s duty of ex officio investigation.  Therefore, the bill of amendments should change to adopt the mode of adopting blended litigation, i.e. the “improved adversary system.”

　The MOJ indicated that it firmly supports to strengthen the prosecutor’s substantial burden of proof to reduce a judge’s duty of ex officio investigation.  The MOJ also agreed with the legislative programs such as the principle to presume that a party is not guilty and the rule of conscientious evidence to increase the prosecutor’s burden of proof.  Nonetheless, the MOJ still considered that the court should not waive its duty to uncover the truth. To enable a prosecutor to actually assume the burden of proof, the most important issue is to specify in the law the restriction of the order and the scope of the court’s investigation of evidence, instead of removing a judge’s duty of ex officio investigation.