Research on Parliamentary Privilege
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Research on Parliamentary Privilege Concurrently Discuss Chinese National People’s Congressional Privilege Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Dr. iur. Eingereicht am: Juli 2009 Bei der Juristischen Fakultät der Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin von: Weizhong Yi (akademischer Grad, Vorname, Geburtsname) 15 Oktober 1972, Hunan (V.R. China) (Geburtsdatum, Geburtsort) Präsident/ Präsidentin der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christoph Markschies Dekan/ Dekanin der Juristischen Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Prof. Dr. Christoph G. Paulus, LL.M. Gutachter/ Gutachterin 1. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ulrich Battis 2. Prof. Dr. Jens Kersten Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 21.09.2009 2 Abstract This thesis analyses parliamentary privilege. The privilege is an ancient parliamentary power. All of countries that have democratized or will soon have democratized provide them by own constitution. The purpose of the parliamentary privilege is to permit members of the legislature to speech freely and express their opinion of political position, and not worry about retaliation on the basis of political motives. The Parliament formulates itself its own rules of procedure and maintains the discipline of parliament itself and so on, in order to ensure that the parliament can independently, freely discharge of its duties and perform its functions. Parliamentary privilege, however, is often misunderstood by popular who believes that the privilege is the special protection of all of the elites of society. That is ironic, because privilege was originally produced as a whole of the protection of Parliament, and it protected members of parliament from the elites at that time. It may be said that parliamentary privilege is a special institutional arrangements based on the principles of democracy. Compared with other parliamentary powers, it is special because it is the defensive power of Parliament rather than an offensive power which the parliament must proactively exercise. After studying on the foundation in the theory of parliamentary privilege, the paper comprehensively discusses on the main elements of parliamentary privilege, the problems at the practice of parliamentary privilege and the development of privilege. Finally, it is to argument how to improve and perfect the relevant privilege systems of Chinese National People’s Congress. Key words: Parliamentary Privilege; The People’s Congress system The Privilege of Chinese National People’s Congress; Improvement CONTENTS CHAPTER1. The Concept of Parliamentary Privilege ...................................1 1 The Definition of Parliamentary Privilege ...................................................1 1.1 What is Parliamentary Privilege ................................................................1 1.2 Legal Basis of Parliamentary Privilege .....................................................4 2 Two Major Systems of Parliamentary Privilege..........................................5 2.1 The British Model......................................................................................5 2.1.1 Freedom of Speech ........................................................................5 2.1.2 Ability to Punish Contempt ...........................................................6 2.1.3 The British Influence .....................................................................7 2.1.4 Parliamentary Privilege in British Modelÿs Nations ...................8 2.1.4.1 The United States ......................................................................8 2.1.4.2 Canada.....................................................................................10 2.2 The French Model....................................................................................11 2.2.1 Freedom of Speech ......................................................................11 2.2.2 Freedom from Arrest....................................................................13 2.2.3 Punishment of Offences...............................................................14 2.2.4 The French influence ...................................................................14 2.2.5 Parliamentary Privilege in French Modelÿs Nations.................14 2.2.5.1 Germany..................................................................................14 2.2.5.2 Japan........................................................................................16 3 The Origin of Parliamentary Privilege .......................................................18 4 The Justification of Parliamentary Privilege .............................................28 4.1 The Purpose of Parliamentary Privilege ..................................................28 4.2 Constitutional Functions..........................................................................31 4.3 Separation of Powers ...............................................................................31 4.4 The Popular Sovereignty and Parliamentary Privilege............................34 4.4.1 The Legislative Self-dealing........................................................35 4.4.2 The Protectiong of the Rights of Citizens....................................35 4.5 Representation and Free Mandate........................................................... 36 CHAPTER2. The Main Content of Parliamentary Privilege ....................... 40 5 The Freedom of Speech................................................................................ 41 5.1 The Concept of Freedom of Speech........................................................ 41 5.2 The Scope of Freedom of Speech ........................................................... 45 5.2.1 Person .......................................................................................... 45 5.2.2 Time............................................................................................. 47 5.2.3 Where .......................................................................................... 48 5.2.4 Material........................................................................................ 50 5.3 Misuse of Freedom of Speech................................................................. 53 6 Freedom from Arrest (Inviolability)........................................................... 56 6.1 The Origin of Freedom from Arrest........................................................ 56 6.2 The Scope of Potection ........................................................................... 59 6.2.1 Who is Protected.......................................................................... 59 6.2.2 Time Frame ................................................................................. 59 6.2.3 Restrictions Based on the Nature of the Offence ........................ 60 6.2.4 Restrictions Concerning Criminal Procedural Acts .................... 60 6.2.5 Freedom from Arrest and Flagrante Delicto ............................... 62 6.3 The Procedure of Lifting Parliamentary Inviolability............................. 63 6.3.1 Procedure Generally Observed.................................................... 64 6.3.2 Decision Made by Courts and not by Parliament........................ 65 6.3.3 The Right to Defence................................................................... 66 6.3.4 Monitoring of Judicial Proceedings............................................. 67 6.3.5 Waiving Parliamentary Inviolability ........................................... 68 6.3.6 Lifting of Inviolability Conditionally and Right to Request Suspension of Detention.............................................................. 68 6.3.7 Right of Detained Members to Attend Parliamentary Sittings.... 69 7 Right of the House to Regulate Own Proceedings..................................... 70 7.1 Historical Background............................................................................. 70 7.2 The Main Content of Right to Regulate Own Proceedings..................... 72 7.2.1 Review the Qualification of Members ........................................ 72 7.2.2 The Right to Set up Rules of Procedure ...................................... 76 7.3 Organizing Right of the House................................................................ 79 II 8 The Power of Discipline................................................................................82 8.1 Disciplinary Sanctions.............................................................................84 8.1.1 From a Call to Order to Censure with Temporary Expulsion......84 8.1.2 A Typically British Sanction: ĀNamingā ................................87 8.1.3 Subsidiary Sanctions....................................................................89 8.2 Who Imposes Sanctions...........................................................................90 8.3 Contempt of Parliament...........................................................................92 8.3.1 A Typical British Institution ........................................................92 8.3.2 Preventing from Interfering by the Executive or the General Public ......................................................................................................93 8.3.3 A Weapon of Being Used Against Members of Parliament........95 CHAPTER3. Existing Some of Questions of Parliamentary Privilege........98 9 How to Understand Parliamentary Proceeding.........................................98 9.1 Caucus Meetings and Parliamentary Proceeding ....................................99 9.2 Parliamentary Proceeding and Parliamentary Committees,