On 27th and 28th October 2022, the 14th Sino German Judges’ Seminar took place on the topic of juvenile delinquency. It was organized by the Sino-German Legal Cooperation Programme of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, commissioned the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ) and the National Judges College (NJC). Judges from both countries, public prosecutors and representatives of the Federal Ministry of Justice and the National Judges College participated.
The annual judges’ seminar offers participants from China and Germany a framework for exchanging ideas. Previously, it dealt with topics from various areas of law, e.g. environmental law, protection of intellectual property and domestic violence. This year’s seminar focused on the topic of juvenile delinquency.
Mrs. Wang Xiaofang and Mr. Li Xiaoming, Vice-Presidents of the National Judges College, welcomed the participants on behalf of the Chinese delegation. Mr. Li Xiaoming stressed the good cooperation with the Legal Cooperation Programme, which has already lasted 21 years and has contributed to the promotion of social justice. The issue of juvenile delinquency is important because the youth is the future of a society. Due to developments with new media formats and the internet, there is a danger of an increase in juvenile delinquency. This is another reason why an exchange with Germany is important. On the German side, Mr. Yianni, Director and China Officer of the Department for International Legal Cooperation of the Federal Ministry of Justice, welcomed the participants and emphasized the good cooperation that has been going on since many years, which has stimulated improvements in one’s own country through a comparison with other systems. He explained that the rights of young people are an important human right and that, accordingly, juvenile criminal law is equally an important topic. The goal of the exchange was to find out the differences and similarities in topics such as developments in juvenile delinquency and prevention measures.
The first part of the event centered on basic features of juvenile criminal law in China and Germany. Mr. Christian Müller, a judge from Wuppertal, presented principles of German juvenile criminal law, such as the distinction between juveniles and adolescents and the different treatment of the two age groups under criminal law. The first Chinese contribution was given by Ms. Liu Xi, judge of the Juvenile Law Chamber of the Intermediate People’s Court of Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. She presented the basic features of juvenile criminal law in China, the developments of juvenile criminal law and special features of the proceedings. For example, hearings against juveniles – as in Germany – are not open to the public. The main focus is on the resocialization of juveniles. The German side was particularly interested in the integrated chambers in China, which, in addition to juvenile criminal cases, also handle civil and administrative law matters of juveniles and thus have a bundling of competences on this topic. Further topics of the subsequent discussion were the Chinese regulations on the age of criminal responsibility in China and the cases in which offenders can be punished there from the age of 12. Despite some differences, the principle of “education instead of punishment” applies in both countries.
Ms. Wang Dandan, Judge of the 1st Criminal Chamber of the Higher People’s Court of Hainan Province, on behalf of the Chinese delegation and Dr Ralf Rose, Judge at the District Court in Böblingen, on behalf of the German delegation, presented on current developments in juvenile criminal law. Ms. Wang Dandan explained that in the area of juvenile delinquency in China there is an increasing number of property and fraud offences, but also more sexual violence. In addition, Ms. Wang presented some statistics on crime, including that the number of drug offences in Hainan has been zero for some time. Dr Rose presented the developments in juvenile delinquency in Germany: There was some increase in juvenile crime in 2015 shortly after the increase in migration. However, this soon levelled off again. In recent years, the Covid-19 pandemic has played a bigger role as a factor in juvenile crime. Child pornography is also on the rise, but this can also be explained by a change in the law in this area. The German delegation was particularly impressed by the drug statistics of their colleagues from Hainan. It was explained that in Hainan there was a combination of measures starting with education at school. It was explained that in China, too, the pandemic and the resulting increased consumption of the internet caused young people to become victims of internet fraud or pornography more often. There were further questions related to the situation of migrants in Germany, the different handling of offences for adults and juveniles, the clearance rate in China and details on property offences.
The second day started with the topic of prevention of juvenile offences with a presentation by Ms. Hu Xueying, Judge of the Juvenile Justice Chamber of the Intermediate People’s Court of Hohhot in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Ms. Hu gave an overview of the developments in juvenile delinquency and the measures that judges can take to prevent them. Christian Pieper, judge at the Siegen Regional Court, introduced German measures, including the role of the Houses of Juvenile Justice that exist in some federal states, where police, youth welfare offices and public prosecutors work together under one roof.
The last topic was the reform of juvenile criminal law. Alex Theile, judge at the local court in Weißwasser, presented some statistics on juvenile delinquency in Germany and came to the conclusion that from a statistical and criminological perspective, reforms of juvenile criminal law were rather not necessary. Procedural reforms, on the other hand, were desirable so that faster investigations and immediate sanctions are possible. Dr. Zheng Weimei, Head of the Department of Criminal Research at the National Judges College, presented the reforms in juvenile criminal law in China. In addition to the change in the age of criminal responsibility, there was also a visual redesign of hearing rooms in the juvenile courts, which had the goal to design the hearing rooms more juvenile-friendly. Among other things, the participants discussed the possibilities of imposing suspended sentences on juveniles, the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility in China for particularly serious crimes, the maintenance of age limits in Germany and the role of youth welfare offices in Germany.
The closing remarks were delivered by Mr. Yianni from the Federal Ministry of Justice and Mrs. Wang Xiaofang from the National Judges College. According to them, combating and preventing juvenile delinquency is a current and important topic in both countries. Despite some differences in substantive law as well as in procedural law, there are also many similarities between the two countries. The continuation of the judges’ seminar in the coming year is expressly welcomed by both sides.