On The Evidence Of Conviction

Evidence is the base on which to establish criminal facts. But law researchers of China, when studying conviction, merely research into the application of law in neglect of the complicated fact determination, which is actually closely related with the application of law. This dissertation, focusing on fact determination, probes into the theory of criminal evidence in combination of the theory of crime constitution in the hope of guiding China's judicial practice.This dissertation falls into five chapters.Chapter I touches upon the definition of crime, the connection between criminal law and criminal procedure law, the research into conviction, and the concept of crime. After comparing the Anglo-American Law System with the Continental Law System, the author holds that criminal law interest should be contained in the concept of a crime and that the violation of legal interest, rather than the social harmfulness, should be regarded as the essential characteristic of a crime. The author makes the research of the concept of crime the start to study fact determination, and establishes the violation of criminal law as the formal concept of a crime. Then he probes into the connection between criminal law and criminal procedure law, expressing the opinion that crime confirmation, namely conviction, is the joint of criminal law and criminal procedure law because only by means of criminal procedure can a crime be confirmed. At the end of this chapter the author defines fact determination as an activity of the people's court which, according to the criminal procedure, decides whether the facts of a case agree with the constitution of a crime. Chapter II expounds both the definition, nature and objectivity of evidence and the base, meaning and significance of the principle of evidence judgment. The author thinks that evidence, which manifests the unification of its subjectivity and objectivity, can be defined as the base on which the judge determines a case after proving the existence or nonexistence of relevant facts. Being the essential nature of evidence, the objectivity of evidence becomes the base of the principle of evidence judgment, which, according to the author, refers to confirming the facts of a case through evidence, namely, regarding evidence as the base of fact judgment. This principle puts evidence to the central position in the criminal procedure, and determines the meaning and content of the entire criminal trial procedure. Chapter III relates the nature of the facts of a case: legal facts, the inherent value of the evidence law, the rules of evidence, and the establishment of facts. First, the author discusses the nature of the facts of a case. Then he explains the inherent value of evidence law. Finally he probes into the rules of evidence and fact confirmation. Based on the study of the connotation of the rules of evidence and their significance, the author suggests that the two-level rules of evidence should be established in China.Chapter IV expounds the meaning, evolution, content, inherent restriction and systemized restriction of the principle of free evaluation of evidence through inner conviction, and points out the premise to establish this principle in China. According to the author, the principle of free evaluation of evidence through inner conviction means that neither the existence and nonexistence of the weight of proof nor its magnitude shall be stipulated beforehand by the law, and the judge is entitled to make a free judgment rather than get constrained by the law when he confirms the facts according to evidence. After the research into the content and inherent restriction of the principle of free evaluation of evidence through inner conviction and the brief explanation of the systemized restriction of the principle, the author concentrates on the discussion of the independence of judiciary (especially the independence of the judge), which is the premise to establish the aforesaid principle in China, and evaluates and analyzes the system of China's judicial committee an...