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Ge Xiu was a tactful person. He knew very well that the emperor had been committed to reforming judicial trials and administrative supervision in the past two years.
From training forensic doctors on a large scale, training county magistrates and deputy magistrates, to taking judicial power away from local officials, and establishing patrol inspection offices to enforce the law independently;
Later, local gentry and wealthy households were given the position of councilors in exchange for donating money for road construction. The councilors were also given the power to write directly to the emperor and to audit the revenue and expenditure of local governments at the end of the year. In fact, this was to use councilors to assist the court in supervising local officials.
Recently, a rather strange imperial edict was suddenly issued, and at the same time, there was an intention to move the Minister of Justice Bai Tie into the cabinet to assist in government affairs. Putting these two things together, careful people can guess that the emperor is probably going to take action against the Ministry of Justice.
The main responsibilities of the Ministry of Justice were to examine and approve various laws, review criminal cases sent to the Ministry from various places, and jointly with the Nine Ministers to hear death penalty cases in "prison pending" and directly hear cases of awaiting execution in the capital area. Together with the Metropolitan Procuratorate in charge of inspection and impeachment, and the Supreme Court in charge of the final hearing and review of major cases, they were collectively known as the "Three Judicial Departments System".
Now the power of the Dali Temple has changed, and it is only responsible for legislation and sending juries to supervise the trial process of major cases. This is actually equivalent to returning the final jurisdiction to the hands of the Ministry of Justice.
The powers of the Ministry of Justice are becoming increasingly important, which in itself goes against the emperor's idea of decentralization. The emperor has been continuously decomposing local judicial power, and the powers of supervision, law enforcement, and trial have been basically separated. Why has the power of the central Ministry of Justice been strengthened anyway
Comparing the two, it is probably only a matter of time before the Ministry of Justice dismembers him.
In this regard, Ge Xiu had no intention of going against the emperor. He knew very well that for the emperor, this was already the final blow, and anyone who stepped in to stop it at this time would definitely not have any good results.
Of course, if Yao Peizhen himself is willing to come out to block it, Ge Xiu would be happy to see it.
But Yao Peizhen asked Ge Xiuhong to come out for the meeting, thinking that he should be the first to take the lead. Would he be so rash as to take the blame
The two of them fought for a long time in the river room, but in the end, neither of them could persuade the other to take the lead, so they could only sigh in their hearts and disperse in frustration.
In the Huagai Palace, Qin Mu met Bai Tie alone. Qin Mu was very satisfied with the first Minister of Justice of the Qin Dynasty. Bai Tie was not a big shot before. Qin Mu appointed him as the Minister of Justice not only because he was optimistic about his ability, but also because of his loyal character.
In the past few years, under his management, the Ministry of Justice has had no backlog of cases and the criminal justice system has been generally clean. This has made the people very loyal to the court, and Qin Mu is very satisfied with this.
He pondered and said, "Minister Bai. A few days ago, I specifically issued an order that the emperor should not interfere with the judiciary. Do you know what my intention was?"
Bai Tie stroked his long beard and replied, "I dare not presume to guess the emperor's intention."
Qin Mu said: "Minister Bai, judicial system is a major issue for the country. Whether the judicial system is fair and just is closely related to every citizen and also affects the credibility of the court. We must be careful. I hope that Minister Bai will remember what I am going to say and do his best to assist me in completing this reform.
But in my opinion, the judiciary is different from legislation and administration. It is the power to punish crimes or adjudicate private disputes. It is a purely legal role in nature, not a political role.
Officials in charge of adjudicating cases should not have subjective judgments and should not use their power to manipulate judicial trials. They are merely mouthpieces of the law. During the trial process, they can only accurately adopt the legal provisions in accordance with the laws formulated by the Dali Temple. They do not have the power to review violations, and even the right to interpret must be strictly limited.
The first characteristic of the judiciary should be neutrality and impartiality. This has been exemplified by the system of relative recusation in the trial of cases in past dynasties. However, this is not enough. In addition, there must be strict procedural rules to safeguard the neutrality of the trial officials.
The second characteristic of the judiciary is independence. The independence of judicial power is necessary to ensure judicial fairness. I have issued an order that the emperor shall not directly interfere with judicial trials in order to ensure its independence. I hope to see that the judicial department is not only completely independent of the legislative and executive departments, but also has the right to review violations of the Qin Law and can revoke laws and administrative actions that violate the Qin Law.
The third point I want to emphasize is unity. This unity has two aspects. First, judicial power is exercised by the statutory departments and cannot be shared by other departments. Second, judicial interpretation or guiding precedents are used to unify the standards of judgment of judicial departments at all levels across the country. In specific cases, similar cases cannot be different for different people or places. The unity of the judiciary must be maintained.
In my opinion, the biggest enemy facing the unified protection of judicial power is local protectionism. In order to avoid the possibility of local protectionism interfering with the judiciary, I would like to clearly stipulate that cases between interstate governments cannot be heard by any judicial department of the state where the plaintiff and the defendant are located, but must be handed over to the central judicial department for jurisdiction. In order to effectively prevent local protectionism
Professionalism is another important feature of the judiciary. As the saying goes, human life is of paramount importance. Once a wrong judgment is made, the lives of the people are taken away and there can be no compensation.
In this regard, the practices of previous dynasties were very casual. Many local officials who held judicial power were corrupt scholars who turned a deaf ear to the outside world and only read the books of sages. They did not even understand the law. After serving as officials, they hastily sentenced people to life and death based on the words of their teachers. Thinking of this, I was terrified. My Great Qin cannot be like this anymore, absolutely not.
Therefore, I need a highly professional judicial team that has not only received rigorous legal education and training, but also has rich judicial practice experience. They are familiar with various laws and cases. When selecting officials from the judicial department, strict regulations must also be formulated to ensure the high professionalism of the judicial team.
Finally, I want to emphasize the openness of the judiciary, which has always been ignored intentionally or unintentionally in the past dynasties. When officials are trying cases, they can let a few people listen in the hall if they are happy, and they can try behind closed doors or even operate in secret if they are unhappy.
From now on, all cases involving human life must have an independent jury to oversee the transparency of judicial power. Without special reasons, the public must not be prohibited from attending the trial process of all cases.
Openness is a necessary means to effectively curb judicial corruption, and trials in the sunshine are the basic guarantee for achieving judicial justice. This point must be made clear by our Daqin and implemented thoroughly. "
Bai Tie was both surprised and astonished by Qin Mu's long conversation. Although it could be summarized into a few points: neutrality, independence, professionalism, unity, and openness.
But each of these points has never been truly achieved by the current Qin Dynasty or even by China in the past two thousand years.
The most important point is that the emperor actually said that the judicial department not only enjoys common independence, but also has the power to review violations of the "Da Qin Law" and can revoke laws and administrative actions that violate the "Da Qin Law".
In other words, even if the imperial court makes an administrative decision, as long as this decision violates the Qin Law, the judicial department also has the right to declare this administrative order invalid according to the Qin Law.
The emperor himself was not allowed to interfere in the judiciary, which was equivalent to raising the judicial power to an unprecedented level, putting it on par with the executive and legislative powers.
Bai Tie had never dared to think about such a thing before, but now that the emperor himself brought it up, it was like a thunderclap, which made him a little dizzy and speechless for a moment.
Qin Mu continued, "Currently, the legislative power has been assigned to the Dali Temple, and the executive power belongs to the cabinet and the various ministries. I want to assign the judicial power to the Ministry of Justice, but with the current status of the Ministry of Justice as one of the six ministries and its simple structure, it is impossible for the judicial power to achieve the neutrality, independence, professionalism, unity, and openness that I mentioned. Therefore, it is imperative to reform the Ministry of Justice.
Bai Qing is the Minister of Justice and the minister I rely on the most. I have made a request. This major reform still needs your strong assistance to complete. Bai Qing, please go back and think about it carefully. After you have sorted out your thoughts, come back to see me. Remember, don't publicize this matter for the time being. After we discuss a practical implementation plan, we can call other ministers to discuss it together. Bai Qing, please don't let me down. "
The last sentence, "Please don't let me down", made Bai Tie's eyes brimming with tears. He quickly stood up and bowed, saying, "I dare not accept your Majesty's request. I will die a thousand times. Your Majesty's grace, I will repay it with my own death." (To be continued...)
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