Basic Theories On Ultimate Facts

Legal norms and case facts are two fundamental elements in civil litigation. On the relationship between legal norms and case facts, there are different thinking ways between legists in continental countries and ones from common law countries. Traditionally, syllogism is the basic form of legal reasoning in continental countries. As the major premise, a legal norm is logically made up of component elements and legal effects. And as the minor premise, the primary facts of the case, also called the direct facts, the key facts, the necessary facts or civil substantive law facts, are facts corresponding to the component elements of legal norms that really happen. In addition to primary facts, a case comprises indirect facts that lead to primary facts, supplementary facts (also referred to as auxiliary facts or evidentiary facts) which are used to examine the competence and weight of evidence, and procedural facts. The characteristic of the continental way of thinking is to consider the component elements of civil norm as the basis to evaluate and determine primary facts. Law application is a process of legal thinking, in which the primary facts that have been evaluated are converted into component elements of legal norms in order to form a judgement.Civil procedure law and Evidence law place emphasis on fact elements during the syllogism reasoning. Under the litigation system of doctrine of...