In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the Criminal Department was the judicial and administrative organ of the imperial court, mainly responsible for the system of legal decrees, criminal law, case review and prohibition. This body formulates, amends, and interprets laws and regulations, adjudicates and adjudicates cases, and oversees the administration of justice. Although most of the powers of the six ministries of monasteries and prisons were seized by the corresponding new institutions, the Criminal Department and Dali Temple, as institutions involved in the judiciary, still retained more powers and became one of the few provinces, ministries, temples and prisons that retained their powers. However, after the establishment of the trial court in the second year of Chunhua, the power of Dali Temple and the Criminal Department to adjugate cases was taken away, and the number of detailed judges was reduced. Subsequently, the criminal department was deprived of the power to review in detail and could only be sent to the criminal court, and its power was limited in the final trial and detailed review of death penalty cases. However, in the third year of Jingde, the Criminal Department added a detailed officer to refute the case. During his four years in Xining, the Ministry of Criminal Justice also stipulated rewards and punishments for officials who were reversed, further consolidating its functions and powers in the administration of justice. In addition to adjudicating and adjudicating cases, the Penal Department is responsible for the management and supervision of the administration of justice. In the three years of Xianping, the trial and criminal court obtained the right to review the "ban on the ten-day performance" of the state capitals, but the criminal department still mainly reviewed it in detail. In the four years of Dazhong Xiangfu, the power of the Criminal Department was further expanded, and the state government had the right to refute the "ban on investigation" in the state government.
Thus, although the functions and powers of the Penal Department have been somewhat limited in the context of the policy of creating new institutions in order to seize the functions of the old ones, the authority and status of the Ministry of Justice and the administration of justice are still very high. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, Dali Temple was one of the judicial organs of the imperial court, but it was not directly involved in the trial of cases, but was responsible for dealing with cases that needed to be reported to the imperial court for ruling, also known as the case. The work of Dali Temple is limited to reviewing the materials of prison cases reported from all over the country, and then reporting to the Criminal Department. The Judge was responsible for hearing cases, initially consisting of six, which was later increased to twelve, with prosecutorial judges and judicial officers. In addition to the supervisory function, the Imperial Historical Observatory also undertakes judicial duties, with a prosecutorial judge and two straightening officers. The judicial organs of the magistrates include judicial assistants and magistrates to the governor of the prefecture, as well as the military assistants and facao officers of the governors. The state also set up a court of judges, which was responsible for interrogating prison affairs, which was later changed to a court of governors, and set up a manager to join the army. The capital also has left and right military patrol courts, which are responsible for public security and the trial of related cases, and there are left and right army patrol envoys and judges. In order to correct wrongful convictions, the "Picket Criminal Prison Department in Beijing" was set up to supervise the trial activities of various judicial and judicial institutions in the capital in cases of imprisonment and above.
In May of the second year of Chunhua, the Imperial Decree ordered the Zhulu Transit Envoy to send a permanent staff officer to be in charge of picketing prisons, which was the origin of the establishment of a full-time road-level magistrate, but it was abolished in October of the following year. In the fourth year of Jingde, the Zhulu Tidian Criminal and Prison Department was established, and finally the power was transferred to the Transfer Division, which became a permanent road-level supervision and judicial body. The role of these judicial bodies is to hear cases or monitor trial activities to ensure the impartiality of justice. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, there was a phenomenon of separation between the title of the official position and the actual position. During this period, the positions of Shangshu of the Criminal Department, Shilang, Langzhong, Yuanwailang, Dali Qing, Dali Shaoqing, Dali Cheng and Dali Commentator all became the official names of Jilu, and they no longer actually served in the Criminal Department and Dali Temple. The ** of the Sentencing Department has become the Minister of Criminal Justice, and each department has set up the Sentencing Officer as the competent officer, and set up a detailed officer to replace the duties of the former Criminal Department Division. At the same time, the ** who judged the affairs of the Dali Temple and the affairs of the Shaoqing of Dali also became the chief, and the detailed judges were set up to replace the original responsibilities of Dali and the judges. In addition, there are temporary judicial institutions, and those who are dismissed because of the matter are called the Survey Yuan, and the non-Imperial Prison is called the Survey Yuan. Major cases will be sent to the Imperial Shitai Prison, and after the case is judged, Kaifeng Mansion and Dali Temple will be investigated.
In terms of the formulation of laws and regulations, the Northern Song Dynasty began the work of unifying laws. Since the Tang Dynasty's "Dazhong Criminal Law System", the method of "taking the classification of criminal laws as the door, and attaching them to the grid and edict" has been adopted to facilitate its use. Later Tang Dynasty and Later Zhou successively compiled the "Criminal System". In the fourth year of Jianlong, that is, in 963, the Northern Song Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty "Xiande Criminal System" was added, deleted, revised and revised on the basis, and in the same year it was revised into a 30-volume "Heavy Criminal System" (known as "Song Criminal System"), which is divided into 12 articles, such as names, guards, prohibitions, professional systems, household marriages, stables, unauthorized development, thieves, lawsuits, fraud, miscellaneous laws, arrests, and prison breaks, with doors under the articles, a total of 213 doors, and edicts and orders are attached after the law. The legal text of "Song Criminal Rule" is basically plagiarized from Tang law, and there are not many changes. Although it was later made several minor revisions, it remained largely in use until the end of the Song Dynasty, making it one of the earliest engraved codes in Chinese history. In addition, at the beginning of the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, on the basis of the laws of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the work of addition, deletion, modification and revision was also carried out to consolidate the political power.
The Northern Song Dynasty court adhered to this tradition, not only applied the laws of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, but also carried out additions, deletions, revisions and revisions on the basis of laws and regulations such as "Yuan He Deleted and Determined Grid", "Taihe New Compiled Later Edict", "Kaicheng Detailed Frame", and "Dazhong Criminal Law General Essentials and Queens", and also carried out important legislative acts of compiling and compiling collections in previous dynasties. In addition, the Northern Song Dynasty court also followed the method of using the law firm to not carry the law, such as the imperial judgment, so that the parallel of the imperial law and the law became a system. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the formulation and codification of laws was an important responsibility of the imperial court, and these laws were comprehensively compiled into 12 classified compilations, such as the Taiping Xingguo Compilation, the Chunhua Compilation, and so on. In addition, there are some special compilations, such as the "Farmland Edict", the "Judge's Yuan Compilation" and so on. This process of formulating and codifying laws is one of the necessary processes in the development of judicial history in ancient China. In the judicial situation in the early Northern Song Dynasty, the rule of man and the rule of law went hand in hand, and the judicial forms were divided into four types: law, order, grid, and style like the Tang Dynasty. Among them, the law is the main basis for judgment and conviction; The order is a provision of the relevant system; Ge is the regulation of the daily affairs of the imperial court institutions; The formula is the official document program and administrative rules of the imperial court. The "Compilation Edict" is based on the division of the "Song Criminal Rule", emphasizing the leading role of law in legal affairs.
A variety of laws and regulations in the early Northern Song Dynasty provided a basis for them, and the first ** had to learn Xi laws. However, as Wen Yanbo said, the judicial situation in the early Northern Song Dynasty was similar to that of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and extrajudicial sentencing was often taken for granted, and even sometimes "often added to the situation and empathized with the law". Although the law is guarded by the judiciary, since Taizu, there are still trade-offs and extrajudicial meanings. This sentence summarizes the problem of "people and law in parallel" in the judicial situation in the early Northern Song Dynasty, that is, many people put their personal interests first and undermined the law of their ancestors. This kind of disadvantage is not uncommon.