On The Application Of The Standard Of Proof To Exclude Reasonable Doubt In Chinese Civil Litigation

The Interpretation of the Supreme Peoples' Court on the Application of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China(hereinafter referred to as the Interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law),which was put into effect in February 4th,2015,puts forward “standard of proof of high possibility” under the general circumstances of civil litigation in China,and “beyond reasonable doubt”under special circumstances,and directly introduces the concept of “beyond reasonable doubt” to the field of civil litigation in China.The generation of the standard lacks sufficient theoretical construction and practice accumulation process;therefore,it is inevitable that some people question whether the standard is “applicable or not”.In addition,the application of this standard has not been further interpreted with official authority in the past five years,which leads to bewilderment and confusion in judicial practice.This doctoral dissertation follows the problem-oriented research path,takes the in-depth exploration of “the application of the standard of proof of ‘beyond reasonable doubt'” in China's civil litigation as the research direction,and examines the application of “beyond reasonable doubt” in China's civil procedure through an empirical method.Based on the Chinese context and practice,this dissertation explores the idealistic form and characterization of the “imported”“beyond reasonable doubt” in China's civil litigation,analyzes its localized application mode,and then tries to construct the institutional system and application paradigm of “beyond reasonable doubt” in the field of civil litigation in China,and seriously answers the question that whether it is applicable in China's civil litigation and how to apply it.This dissertation is mainly composed of five parts,namely the question part,the empirical part,the comparative part,the theoretical part and the construction part.The question part,on the basis of recording the institutional background of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt”,puts forward the theme of this dissertation: whether the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” is applicable in China's civil litigation,and how to apply it? Through the analysis of the current research situation at home and abroad,this part illustrates the achievements and shortcomings of the existing research.In the empirical part,two empirical methods,questionnaire survey and case analysis,are adopted to make an empirical analysis on the current situation of the application of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” in China's civil litigation.Firstly,the questionnaire is based on the questionnaire of 96 judges of grassroots,intermediate and higher People's Courts and 93 practicing lawyers in G province.The theme of the questionnaire is “the application of the standard of proof of ‘beyond reasonable doubt' for judges/lawyers”.The questionnaire focuses on investigating and analyzing the application situation of the standard of proof of“beyond reasonable doubt” for judges/lawyers,the inner argumentation process of judges in ascertaining the facts,the rules of writing that judges write the standard of proof into judgments,and the system expectation of judges/lawyers on the standard of proof,etc.It also explores the pattern and prospect of the application of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” in civil litigation from the perspective of judges and lawyers.Secondly,case analysis takes civil judgments published by basic,intermediate and higher people's courts nationwide from China Judgements Online as the research samples,and the research topic is “the application of the standard of proof of ‘beyond reasonable doubt' for judges”.In terms of time,this part takes the year of 2015 when the standard of proof of“beyond reasonable doubt” was established as the dividing line,and focuses on the comparative analysis of the inner argumentation process of judges in ascertaining the facts before and after the establishment of the standard,the rules of writing the standard of proof into judgments,and the application situation of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt”,etc.Through a large number of case statistical analysis,the real application situation of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” is presented.Thirdly,this part summarizes the practical dilemma of the application of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt”in China's civil litigation,and analyzes the deep reasons for the specific dilemma,laying a foundation for further consideration and solution of the problem.In the comparative part,through the extraterritorial comparative study on the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt”,some useful enlightenments and references beneficial for the development of local theory and practice are obtained.This part makes a comparative review and analysis on the application of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” in continental law system countries and Anglo-American law system countries from three dimensions: legal provisions,legal theory and judicial practice.Through the comparison method,this part finds some specific reference resources for the application of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” in China.The theoretical part makes a theoretical analysis on the standard of proof of“beyond reasonable doubt” from three different perspectives: civil integration thinking,legal hermeneutics and evidence science.It is advocated that the reform of civil proof standard should be explored under the thinking mode of civil integration.Based on the principle of legal hermeneutics,this part interprets the core concepts of “beyond reasonable doubt” to better understand the normative reasons for judicial interpretation and the explanatory value of the civil litigation application of “beyond reasonable doubt”.At the same time,this part analyzes“beyond reasonable doubt” from the perspective of evidence science,and clarifies the special evidence rules and requirements in the standard of proof.It is hoped that through detailed theoretical interpretation and evidence review,this chapter will lay a solid theoretical foundation for the construction of the applicable system of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt”.The construction part upholds the ideal of “unified referee scale”,aims for the visual presentation of the generation and elimination process of judges “reasonable doubt”,tries to disassemble and analyze the application of the standard of proof of“beyond reasonable doubt”,refines the “progressive proof mode” composed of the progressive proof of the prosecutor,the progressive defense of the defendant and the progressive trial of the judge,and explores the premise,status,support and other institutional basis indispensable for the operation of the mode.Guided by the idea of “progressive proof mode”,the author makes a comprehensive analysis of a typical case of “fraud” from the perspectives of vertical trial level and horizontal subject.On the one hand,the author demonstrates the effective guiding role of“progressive proof mode” in the practical application of the standard of proof of“beyond reasonable doubt”.On the other hand,from the case analysis,the author summarizes the general application rule of “beyond reasonable doubt” such as its establishment essentials.It is hoped that by refining the progressive proof mode of visual “beyond reasonable doubt”,this dissertation can gradually complete the integrated construction tasks of basic construction,theoretical interpretation,application deduction and case guidance,which are indispensable for the application of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” in China.In summary,in the globalized pattern of academic openness and system mutual reference,it is an important route for contemporary China's litigation theory's maturity to understand the real situation of extraterritorial concepts in China's judicial practice and to have the ability to establish its localization system and perfect its application.This dissertation discusses the application of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” in civil litigation,which is exactly a practice for the research path of upgrading the empirical test to the practical mode.Despite the difficulties and obstacles,the author looks forward that,in the near future,the theory of “beyond reasonable doubt” in China's civil litigation will become a flesh-and-blood system with independent context.The innovation of this dissertation mainly includes the following three aspects.First,the practicality of the research content.This dissertation takes “the application of the standard of proof of ‘beyond reasonable doubt'” as the core research topic and adopts various empirical research methods.This dissertation not only conducts an in-depth empirical research on the current situation of the application of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” in China's civil litigation through questionnaire survey and case analysis,but also uses charts to display the logic of evidence,the relationship of proof and the process of proof by systematically analyzing typical cases of “beyond reasonable doubt”,so as to demonstrate the proper path for each party in civil litigation in the application of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt”.Second,the openness of the perspective.In the process of demonstration,this dissertation pays attention to the comparative study and reference of relevant extraterritorial theories and systems,and adopts the theoretical tools and methods of logic,hermeneutics,axiology and even history from an open perspective to comprehensively analyze the applicability of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” in China's civil litigation.Third,the integrity of the solution.By refining the progressive proof mode of visual “beyond reasonable doubt”,this dissertation attempts to complete the integrated construction tasks of basic construction,theoretical interpretation,application deduction and case guidance,which are indispensable for the application of the standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” in China.