美国刑事和解中的必威体育官网网址义务及其启示.pdfVIP

Abstract Since 1970s, Victim Offender Meditation (VOM) programs have been widely used in the United States. American Bar Association (ABA) recognized VOM in 1994 and the National Organization for Victim Assistance approved the model of restorative community justice in 1995, after that, VOM was legalized as one of the fundamental legal institutions. As the product in the transformation process of modern criminal system, VOM is also widely applied to criminal cases in China. Although there is no express statutory provision on VOM system in China ’s current criminal procedure law, a lot of provinces carry out VOM practices and more and more scholars and justice departments call for the legalization of VOM. As the critical component in VOM system, confidentiality obligation is of great significance in the whole system. It helps to guarantee the offender ’s constitutional right, improve the effectiveness of VOM, ensure the neutrality of mediators and promote the institutionalization of ‘separation of mediation and judgment’ by stipulating confidentiality obligation in the VOM system. However, scholars and justice departments are lack of confidentiality consciousness in the process of promoting VOM in China. Without confidentiality system, it is unlikely that meaningful discussion will take place between the offender and the victim and the VOM will be aborted eventually. Therefore, we should pay more attention to confidentiality obligation while building our VOM system. There are a lot of statutes and precedents making provision on confidentiality obli