Xiangde Ji, born in Qingzhou City, Shandong Province, Doctorate in Law from Peking University Law School, Post-Doctoral Research in Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, where he continues to work as a Researcher at the Law Institute. He has had successive careers in the fields of law enforcement, teaching, and legal practice. His honors include having been recognized as One of Ten Academically-Outstanding Graduate Students at Peking University, One of China's Most Outstanding Teachers, and as One of China's Most Outstanding Criminal Defense Attorneys, among other awards. He is currently at the Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, where he holds the positions of Assistant Director, Research Fellow, Executive vice director and Professor in the Law Department at the Law Institute, and Party Branch Executive Deputy Secretary within the Law Department.
Principal Research Fields
Criminal procedure law, criminal law, evidence law, the justice system, empirical law, legal education.
Principal Professional and Service Activities
Administrative Vice President, Chongwen District People's Procuratorate, Beijing; Deputy Director, China Behavioral Law Association's Commission on the Study of Lawyers' Professional Behavior; Managing Director, Legal Education Research Commission of the China Law Association; Member, Standing Committee of the China Law Association Legal Education Research Commission's Clinical Legal Education Committee; Member, Doctoral Dissertation Defense Council at Peking University Law School and other academic institutions. Holds positions of Research Fellow or Professor at: Fudan University, Guangxi University, Yantai University, and other academic institutions; Legal Advisor, Ministry of Civil Affairs and other ministries; Expert Member of the Committees on Court and Procuratorate Systems in Beijing, Shandong Province and Hebei Province.
Principal Academic Achievements
Publications include: "Equality of Prosecution and Defense" (sole author), "On the Construction of Plea Bargaining System in China" (sole author), "Study of Issues of Rape During Marriage" (sole author), "Establishing a System of Access to Criminal Defense in China: Theory and Empirical Research" (first author), "New development of Legal Studies" (first author), "The Comparative Study of the Negotiated Dispute Resolution" (editor), "New Theory of the Judicial System" (editor), "Model of Legal Education in China" (editor), and more than three dozen sets of publications and teaching materials as editor, co-author, or co-editor, and over one hundred and fifty published academic papers. More than twenty sets of published research results and reports, selected for the "Results Journal" by the Social Science Planning Office of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, together with the National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science, "Journal of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences", "Leaders' Reference Guide", "Academic Trends", and other journals.
Principal Research Projects
Independently completed the National Social Science Fund project "Establishing Equality of Prosecution and Defense in Criminal Procedure in China"; independently completed China's Postdoctoral Science Fund program "On the Construction of Plea Bargaining System in China"; independently conducted the Canadian Bar Association and the All China Lawyers Association's International Criminal Defense and Judicial Reform project, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency; independently completed the Sino-Foreign Cooperative International Project "The Comparative Study of the Negotiated Dispute Resolution"; independently completed the Sino-Dutch Legal System Reform Research Project's project on "The Role and Status of Defense Attorneys, and the System of Access to Criminal Defense. Directed and completed the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Key Project: "The Relationship of Prosecution and Defense in a Harmonious Society", "Model of Legal Education in China", "Establishing a System of Access to Criminal Defense in China: Theory and Empirical Research"; directed and completed the Supreme People's Procuratorate's Prosecutorial Theory Research Project: "A Study on Evidentiary Problems Leading to the Inability to Prosecute When the Crime is in Doubt", and others.
Principal Contributions to Academic Discourse
1, Raising the issue of "Establishing a System of Plea Bargaining in China". In the process of studying the measures taken to resolve the issue of increasing numbers of disputes and limited judicial resources during China's transformative period, I have discussed the concept of "plea bargaining", proposed and constructed a Chinese system of plea bargaining that would suit China's practical needs, would be rich in Chinese characteristics, have a dignified, Chinese style, and would befit the rule-of-law spirit of the twenty-first century.
2, Developing the "Theory of Equality of Prosecution and Defense". The legal field's traditional theoretical concept of the equality of prosecution and defense is essentially one of "equality arms". Based on this notion, I have discussed and demonstrated the importance of the new doctrines of "equality in confrontation", "equal protection", and "equal cooperation", assigning new meaning to the equality of prosecution and defense. I have also demonstrated that the equality of prosecution and defense must be the combination of equality in form and equality in substance; combined the empirical research analyzing the reasons underlying critiques of current criminal procedure law; and advocated that equal cooperation and equality in confrontation must be achieved through equality of arms and equal protection.
3, Raising the importance, in the context of establishing a harmonious society, of reconstructing the concept of the relationship between prosecution and defense in China. Taking the current state of "hostile", "irrational and unequal confrontation" between prosecution and defense, and transforming it into a state of "equality of prosecution and defense"; on the basis of equality of prosecution and defense, the two sides will be able both to confront one another on equal footing and to cooperate in an equal manner. The basic plan is the following: starting from a state of equality between prosecution and defense, first seek equal cooperation in order to resolve around 80% of cases and thereby increase the efficiency of litigation; the approximately 20% of cases that cannot be resolved through cooperation should use equal confrontation to promote the realization of justice; and through the streamlining of criminal procedure, achieve the goal of establishing a fair, authoritative, and efficient justice system.
4, Discussing the importance of using the principle: "simplifying the simple; expanding the complex"(简着更简，繁着更繁) as the center of the basic model for the reform of China's criminal litigation system. In order to separate cases into complex or simplified, the first prerequisite is the presentation of the evidence; next, a procedure must be established to determine the initial plea of the accused. For all cases in which the defendant enters an initial plea of guilty, the cases will enter a system of simplified procedure requiring due process. If the facts of such cases are clear and the evidence is sufficient, a "high-speed" simplified procedure may be used. However, if the facts are not clear or the evidence is insufficient, the case would enter "plea negotiation" simplified procedure. Either way, cases involving an initial plea of guilty will undergo simplified pretrial preparations and trial procedure, thereby achieving the "simplification of the simple". When, on the other hand, the defendant enters an initial plea of not guilty, the case will enter a system of ordinary procedure requiring due process, granting the defendant and his attorney comprehensive substantive and procedural rights and protections, and thereby achieving the goal of "expanding the complex".
5, Discussing and demonstrating the importance of a "system requiring a charge prior to formal arrest". I believe that we must establish a system in which, when handling the categorization of cases requested or transferred for formal arrest approval, using the theory of a level of standard-of-proof as a basis for due process, using the criminal charge as a substantive prerequisite, and using the dual goals of crime control and human rights protections as the values to strive for in litigation, and adopt international conventions, international criminal justice norms, and the contemporary situation of Chinese criminal justice as the coordinates upon which to map the reforms of China's system of detention and arrest. This would redress the misconceptions of practitioners, clarify the misunderstandings of academia, and play a positive role in building the legitimacy of the system of formal arrest.
6, In the field of criminal defense, originating the term and raising the issue of "the three difficulties of criminal defense". The terms I coined to describe criminal defense, of "difficulty of client visits", "difficulty of discovery", and "difficulty of investigation and evidence collection" have been cited in the legal academic field and by legal profession, from the 1996 revisions of the Criminal Procedure Law and the 1997 addition to the Criminal Law of article 306, to this day.
7, Creating the concept of "the police, prosecution, judiciary, and attorneys as the four "wheels of justice". I believe that, in envisioning a legal and professional community under the rule of law, the police, prosecution, judiciary, and attorneys are the four indispensable wheels driving the rule of law in society; without the current system of defense lawyers, the justice system would be far from able to progress on the current path to the rule of law. For this reason, the public security and judicial organs must change from their long-held view of lawyers' participation in criminal litigation as something that makes the work of investigation, prosecution and adjudication more onerous, and establish a modern view consistent with the rule-of-law, that the participation of lawyers in litigation is to protect the legal rights and privileges of defendants and to ensure the fairness of procedure. During criminal litigation, those organs should treat attorneys with goodwill, as equals, walking with them and shoulder to shoulder, pushing together for progress in establishing the rule of law in China.
8, Coining the phrase in Chinese and advocating for "access to criminal defense". The overall concept of establishing a system of access to criminal defense in China is the following: there must be a unified system, promulgated by the Ministry of Justice for professional certification to handle criminal defense cases. All those who obtain professional qualification to be an attorney, who have been handling cases as an attorney for over three years, and have passed a specialized criminal defense examination, may handle criminal defense cases in the basic level courts. Of those lawyers who have handled criminal defense cases in the basic level courts for more than three years, those who have been qualified through a training and assessment may handle defense in ordinary criminal cases in the mid-level courts. Lawyers who have handled defense in ordinary criminal cases in the mid-level courts for over five years, who are qualified through a training and assessment, may handle defense in death penalty cases. At the same time, mechanisms must be established for training, assessment, qualification, and attorney disqualification that correspond with the mechanism of access to defense.
9, Coining the phrase and describing "the criminal defense cask". The meaning of this concept is that: no system is more indispensable to a country's stability and development than its legal system; a legal system's most important system is its criminal justice system; therefore, a country's criminal justice system relies on its criminal defense system, especially on whether or not its defense attorneys can fulfill their professional responsibility to provide a good defense, and whether or not they can establish public trust. The metaphor poses that the rule of law is the shortest plank in "society's cask"; analogously, criminal rule of law is the shortest plank in the "rule of law cask". Finally, criminal defense is the shortest plank in the "criminal rule of law cask". Evaluating the level of rule of law attained by a country can only be accomplished with certainty by consulting the state of its criminal defense system.
10, Raising the importance of advocating for the "criminalization of rape during marriage". Discussing the theoretical basis, "coupling rights and duties," underlying academic discourse on rape during marriage. Revealing the belief of many men, that sexual refusal during marriage constitutes a breach of contract, and that the perceived breach of contract engenders sexual violence. However, in legal logic, the perceived breach of contract regarding sexual relations does not necessarily lead to sexual violence, and it certainly does not legitimize sexual violence. It is my belief that, as the emphasis of legal rights regulation shifts from social to individual rights, the ability to protect human rights and provide for social justice becomes indispensable, in any legal system. This notion, as reflected in the issue of marital rape, entails the elimination of restrictions on the protection of women's sexual rights in marital relationships and the need to break free from the misunderstanding that "the marital relationship alone is sufficient to prevent marital rape from constituting a crime."
11, Discussing and demonstrating the importance of promoting "the progressive development of the Chinese model of legal education". It is my belief that, in the over-60 years since the founding of the New China, Chinese legal education has undergone a process of change, from studying the Soviet model in the initial period of the New China, to the planned commodity economy period when lessons were being drawn from the European Civil Law model, to the period of building the socialist market economy system's mixed model, then, following the introduction of the concept of scientific development, on to the preliminary formation of the model with Chinese characteristics. Signs of the gradual formation of a Chinese model of legal education can be observed in the following five phenomena: number one, the multilevel system focusing on legal education in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in law, and supplemented by vocational legal education, and other types, has already reached maturity; number two, the model of training versatile legal professionals with an organic combination of basic, specialized, and continuing education in law, is essentially fully-formed; number three, the multi-track system of legal education is gradually being perfected, as the all-around legal education at institutions of higher learning and research institutes, continuing professional legal training at specialized schools, and the general legal education of the populace increasingly complement one another; number four, interactive legal education and employment mechanisms are gradually being constructed by the close relationship between academic legal education's integrated judicial examination, and the legal profession; number five, the management of legal education is increasingly being coordinated and harmonized via the quadripartite mechanism of professional guidance in the form of administrative management by educational ministries on one hand and judicial administration departments on the other, the self-management of professional legal education associations, and of the legal academy.
12, Describing the current transition of China's graduate legal education system from a focus on academic Master of Laws degrees to a focus on professional Master of Laws degrees. In my opinion: the resumption in 2009 of enrollment in China's Master of Laws (academic law) degree programs indicates the beginning of a shift in the priorities of graduate students in law from the academic to the professional Master of Laws degree. In the development and training of future Chinese graduate students in law, specialized, practice-oriented Master of Laws degree programs for working professionals in the political and legal system have already completed their historical mission. Full-time specialized professionally-oriented Master of Laws degrees (non-academic law) will have complex training objectives, aiming at the development of specialized professionals with high-level practice skills, especially geared towards career and employment training for work in government organs, groups, and enterprises, professional legal knowledge and corresponding specialized complex system knowledge and a practically-oriented workforce. Full-time specialized Master of Laws (academic law) degree programs will set their training goals as to facilitate the development of professionalized, legal professionals with a high level of practice skills, especially training judges, prosecutors, lawyers and high-level police sergeants; the training goals of academic Master of Laws degrees are academic, research-oriented advanced legal personnel, especially institutions of higher learning, research institutions, and other employers seeking teachers and researchers.
13, Proposing a "Fourth Revolution in the Criminal Justice System". It is my opinion that: the first revolution in the criminal justice system is the separation of judicial and administrative authority; the second revolution is the separation of adjudicative and prosecutorial authority; the third revolution is the equality of prosecution and defense; currently, the world is undergoing a fourth revolution in criminal justice-the relationship between the prosecution and defense is going from one focusing on confrontation and supplemented by cooperation, to one focusing on cooperation and supplemented by confrontation.
