The Facts Of The Case That Theory

Generally speaking, there are two tasks for the court: one is to find the facts of the case, the other is to apply the law. As is proved by the global judicial experience, fact-finding, which is far more difficult than law-applying, is the central task of litigation, and the finding of the overall facts could be seen as an important subject for achieving the goal of litigation. Currently in our country, the tendency has always been "substantiality weighs over procedure", either in theory or in practice. But substantiality here seems to refer to substantial laws rather than relevant facts. How could laws be applied properly if the facts are not found clearly? Most of those judicial explanations enacted by our supreme court involve only the explanation of laws instead of the finding of facts. It is impractical to solve the problem of judicial justice only by making some unsystematic evidential rules. Now in our country, since the disputes between the parties in reality mostly focus on facts other than the law, it is far from enough only to put emphasis on the explanation of laws. This article including an introduction, seven chapters and a conclusion, will make an effort on this aspect.1. Thread of my thoughts and arrangement of this articleThe introduction illustrates the purpose, the current situation, the methods and the conclusion. The thread of my researching thoughts starts with defining what is the facts of the case, what is the difference between the facts found by the court and the facts happening in real life and why there is such a difference, and the difference between fact issues and law issues in the cases. The above problems are essential for this article. Then I .broaden my horizon to compare and analyze different and similar traits in fact-finding between Anglo-American law system and continental law system, and then analyze their regular theoretic ground, operating requisites, advantages and disadvantages, on the basis of which, I try to make some suggestions on fact-finding after taking into consideration the existing problems and some relevant suggestions made by others in our country.Chapter 1 sets a foundation for my further argument by defining the facts and byanalyzing the difference between the facts and the law. This chapter is critical, without which one would be lost in the forest of the facts. Chapter 2 discusses the most favorable type of court structure to promote the accuracy of fact finding. Chapter 3 analyzes thoroughly the basis for finding the facts. Chapter 4, chapter 5 and chapter 6, with respective focuses on the procedures of first trial , appellant trial and attitudes toward scientific evidence, compare the similar and different traits between Anglo-American law system and continental law system, and then extract some rules, which service as the theoretical ground for the settlement of misunderstanding the facts. The last part is the conclusion, which shows my essential standpoint on the problem of the fact.2. Major innovations of this article.1) Judges, who are experts on law-applying, may be laymen in fact-finding. 2)Fact finding is a difficult problem. It may be said that some of the facts could never be clarified even by Confucius or Aristotle. Therefore, it is not enough to solve this problem just by improving the judge's ability. 3)Even if all the facts have been found by the judge, the judge's decision will not necessarily receive complete public acceptance. 4) The optimal choice is to make the public participate into judicial process substantively. 5)After the public's substantive participation, three measures should be taken: first, set up a trial system where facts should be found by first trial in principle, and by appellant trial as an exception; second, establish the system of cross-examination so as to strengthen the antagonism of the trial procedure and further raise the accuracy of fact-finding; third, in view of the dignity of human nature, establish our reasonable judicial system for presenting the witness.In addition, I have some...