The Research Of Judicial Review In Government Information Disclosure In America

The main issue that American government judicial review for disclosure of records wantsto settle is the legitimacy and propriety of the agency’s claim for the exemption of documents,that is, the applicable issue of judicial review in The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)exemptions, which includes the comprehension of the exemptions’ definition and range andthe standards of exempt documents. The core issue of the application of the exemptions’judicial review is how to balance the public’s interest of right to know and the confidentialinterest that government claims. The public’s right to know refers to the public interest thatthe public gains in government’s disclosure of records. It is irrelevant that whether the right toknow and the documents are "useful” to requesters, also the same to requesters’ identity andmotives. The standard is to "let citizens know what the government was up to"; theconfidential interests that government asserts is that the FOIA provides government can baseon state secrets, trade secrets, personal privacy, administrative privilege, decision-makingprivilege, enforcement privilege and so on to exempt the specific documents they hold. Theconfidential interests that government asserts fall into two categories: on the one hand, theright to know is an important part of modern democracy, the public has the right to accessinformation held by governmental agencies; on the other hand, in order to protect the interestssuch as state secrets, trade secrets, personal privacy, administrative privilege, decision-makingprivilege and enforcement privilege, government can reject to disclose certain s. Exemptiondoesn’t mean absolute withholding, but through balancing the public interest that the publicgain from government’s information disclosure and withholding, and then decide whether todisclose the specific documents. The FIOA provides9exemptions, therefore, this paper willstart around the judicial review in these exemptions. This paper divides into four parts:The first part includes the chapter one, this chapter mainly studies American informationdisclosure system, which contains historical development of American information disclosuresystem, the main content and characteristic of the FIOA and the theoretical basis of Americaninformation disclosure system. The purpose is to disclose the main impetus of the FIOA’slegislative and amendments are the journalists, the lawyers, public interests groups and lawscholars; the emphasis of previous amendment of the FIOA is the exemptions and governmentinformation disclosure management and supervision systems; the characteristic and advantages of American information disclosure system is establishing general principle ofgovernment information full disclosure through variety of systems. At the same time, throughresearches, we reveal the second most important premise of judicial review in Americangovernment information disclosure: American public’s strong awareness of right to know andoversight, and the specific characteristic that the exemptions suit the judicial review.The second part includes chapter two, this chapter mainly studies American governmentinformation judicial review system, which contains the methods of proof, review procedure,standard of review and remedies of government information disclosure judicial review. On thepart of methods of proof, agencies can through submit affidavits and Vaughn index to performthe burden of proof; on the part of review procedure, it can through the motion for summaryjudgment to direct-judging, court trial is not necessary, and it can also through the way of exparte in camera to review records; on the part of standard of review, the most strictest Denovo review standard applies; on the part of remedies, the system of attorneys’ fees can makethe plaintiff get the relief. The studies of this part, on one hand, can provide the system basisto judicial review of government information disclosure; on the other hand, it reveals thedifferences between the judicial review of government information disclosure and generaladministrative actions.The third part includes chapter three to chapter nine, which is the core of the paper, andmainly study the judicial reviews in nine exemptions in the FIOA. In the aspect of the judicialreview of the exemption of state secrets records, the key point is to pay attention to thecharacteristics of the methods of proof, review procedure and standard of review; in the aspectof the judicial review of the exemption of internal management records, the key point is thestandard of internal personal rules; in the aspect of the judicial review of the exemption oftrade secrets records, the key point is the decision tree and specific standard which judge thetrade secrets and commercial or financial information; in the aspect of the judicial review ofthe exemption of internal decisions, the key point is the decision tree and specific standardwhich judge the internal decisions’ records; in the aspect of the judicial review of theexemption of personal privacy, the key point is the main factors that should be consideredwhen balances the interests of personal privacy and the public interest that gain for disclosure,the measurement of " clearly unwarranted " standard and the public interest standard; in theaspect of the judicial review of the exemption of law enforcement records, the key point is thecomprehension of " the records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes " and the measurement of the six specific situations of the exemptions. Viewed form the spiritof judicial review of American government information disclosure, except for when the rightto know conflicts with national security interests, the national security interests should be putthe first place, when the right to know conflicts with state secrets, trade secrets, personalprivacy, administrative privilege, decision-making privilege and enforcement privilege, ittends to protect the public’s right to know, in order to show the general principle ofgovernment information full disclosure.The forth part is the last portion, that is, revelation and suggestion, which briefly givesadvices and suggestions in the aspect of our country’s cultivation of the awareness of public’sright to know, the request’s qualification of government information disclosure, methods ofproof, review procedure, standard of review and remedies of government informationdisclosure judicial review, the deletion and improvement of our county’s current exemptions,and the judicial review.