| In order to safeguard the defendant's right to appeal, most countries and international conventions have established either the automatic appeal system or the discretionary appeal system. The essence of the right to appeal requires the state to ensure the defendant an opportunity to have his case heard by the court at the higher level and both of two appeal systems have embodied the essence. Obtaining leave to appeal is an important feature of discretionary review. It separates the right to request leave from the court's decision-making power, and helps to avoid abuse of the right, manage caseload and maintain the first-instance-centric structure. Nowadays, in some cases in which defendants have confessed and accepted punishments, there are legitimate grounds and the necessity to introduce the system of discretionary review and leave to appeal. In the future, China must take such diverse factors as the nature of case, the seriousness of the crime, confession status, first-instance procedure and the values and functions of appellate procedure into comprehensive consideration in exploring the dual or multi-track appellate system, so as to promote case diversion and reasonable allocation of judicial resources. |
京公网安备11010102006664号 京ICP备2023015853号