ABSTRACT
The principle of accusation; plays an important role in modern criminal justice. No one can be convicted without being accused by a public prosecutor in advance. In order to investigate possible crimes and file charges against suspects, the public prosecutor possesses several legal tools to collect evidence. Under Taiwan’s Criminal Procedure Code, for example, a public prosecutor can directly summon a defendant or witness for questioning. After losing the First Sino-Japanese War between the Qing Dynasty and Japan in 1895, Taiwan was ceded to Japan as its colony under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Before the Japanese colonial era, there was no modern-style prosecutorial system in Taiwan under the Qing administration. Developments in mainland China also influenced Taiwan’s prosecutorial system after 1945. Late in the Qing Dynasty, the Dali Yuan Court Establishment Act of 1906 created a prosecutorial system influenced by the Continental European legal tradition.
