「刑事訴訟法」雖名之為「訴訟」，然卻不僅止於刑事「審判」程序之「狹義訴訟程序」，乃併及於「偵查」、「起訴」、以及審判之後的「執行」程序，即「刑事訴訟法」所謂「訴訟」係從廣義，與「程序」係屬同義詞。而刑事程序因其目的而異其性格，傳統以來認為刑事訴訟法乃刑法之助法，故將其目的定性為實踐國家刑罰權。其後，鑑於刑法具有高度政治性，易遭統治者濫用，淪為打壓異己之手段，兼之又受國際人權思潮之洗禮，刑事程序之目的逐漸轉變，不再以實踐國家刑罰權為第一要務，轉而強調「無程序即無刑罰」，換言之，刑事訴訟法不再是刑法之助法，而有其獨立的「程序目的」，即確保國家在實踐其刑罰權時，必須嚴守程序正義，以保障刑事被告之基本人權。故而有稱刑事訴訟法為「憲法之測震儀」。而「保障人權」與「實踐刑罰權」此兩大目的之間，時有衝突，如何解決・調和此一衝突，成為現代刑事訴訟法學之最核心課題。本課程最重要之內涵即在講授此一核心課題。具體言之，先說明刑事訴訟法學之基本原理與體系，再依序探討「偵查」、「起訴」、「審判」、「執行」，此四階段，在我國刑事訴訟法有何規定又實務上如何具體適用，藉此以明，在現代國家中，刑事訴訟法如何成為憲法之測震儀。

Although the "Criminal Procedure Law" is called "litigation", it is not limited to the "narrow sense litigation procedure" of the criminal "trial" procedure, but also includes "investigation", "prosecution", and "execution" procedures after trial. That is, the so-called "litigation" in the "Criminal Procedure Law" is used in a broad sense and is synonymous with "procedure". Criminal procedures vary in character depending on their purpose. Traditionally, criminal procedure law has been considered to be an auxiliary law to criminal law, so its purpose is defined as the practice of the country's penal power. Later, in view of the highly political nature of criminal law, which was easily abused by rulers and became a means to suppress dissidents. In addition, it was baptized by international human rights trends. The purpose of criminal procedure gradually changed. It no longer regarded the implementation of the state's penal power as the first priority. Instead, it emphasized that "no procedure means no punishment." In other words, criminal procedure law is no longer an auxiliary law to criminal law, but has its own independent "procedural purpose", that is, to ensure that the state must strictly abide by procedural justice when practicing its penal power to protect the basic human rights of criminal defendants. Therefore, some people call the Criminal Procedure Law the "seismometer of the Constitution." There are conflicts between the two major purposes of "protecting human rights" and "practicing the right to punish". How to resolve and reconcile this conflict has become the core issue of modern criminal procedure law. The most important content of this course is to teach this core topic. Specifically, this article first explains the basic principles and system of criminal procedure law, and then discusses in sequence "investigation", "prosecution", "trial" and "execution". What are the provisions of these four stages in our country's criminal procedure law and how are they applied in practice? This will help to understand how in modern countries, the criminal procedure law has become a seismometer of the constitution.

1. 劉芳伶自編教材
2. http://fjudkm.judicial.gov.tw/(司法智識庫)
3. http://jirs.judicial.gov.tw/Index.htm(司法院法學資料檢索系統)

1. Liu Fanling’s self-edited teaching materials
2. http://fjudkm.judicial.gov.tw/(Judicial Knowledge Base)
3. http://jirs.judicial.gov.tw/Index.htm (Judicial Yuan Legal Information Retrieval System)