On the Application of the "Approved Prosecution" Clause Regarding the Age of Criminal Responsibility

Abstract

The Eleventh Amendment to the Criminal Law stipulates that the Supreme People's Procuratorate has the right to approve and prosecute juvenile offenders, which is in line with the trend of juvenile delinquency in China today. The Supreme People's Procuratorate, as the only authority that exercises the right to approve prosecution in this provision, should clarify its value position of concretizing the right of first instance, coordinating judicial fairness, and its prosecution significance in procedural law in order to properly understand and apply this provision in judicial practice. It should recognize the lack of procedural provisions in this provision and extend relevant procedural provisions on this basis, including concretizing the protection system for the litigation rights of minors involved in crimes, improving subsequent relief procedures, and constructing a judicial handling mechanism with independent handling measures, parental education and learning, specialized correction and education for the separation of serious and minor crimes, and subsequent tracking and evaluation as the content.