On Language Construction Of Case Facts

Taking “language” as the starting point and “facts construction” as the main line,adopting an interdisciplinary “panoramic” perspective and the research idea of combining theoretical exposition and substantive analysis,and comprehensively using the research methods of literature review,theoretical interpretation,case analysis,discourse analysis,comparative study,etc.,this dissertation systematically studies the construction of case facts and analyzes the nature,process,characteristics,influencing factors,and effectiveness of the construction of case facts from the interdisciplinary perspectives of law,linguistics,narratology and rhetoric.On the language construction of case facts.The case facts are not the“objective truth” of “proof” or “discovery”,but rather the result of the joint construction by different legal subjects through negotiation and communication in accordance with the established rules in a specific context.Language is the fundamental means of constructing case facts,while narrative and rhetoric are the basic ways of being the case facts.Language construction process of case facts.The language construction of case facts can be divided into three stages: the objective facts are stated as evidential facts based on evidence,the evidential facts are restated as legal facts based on legal norms,and legal facts are reconstructed into judicial facts based on normative facts and case judgment requirements.The case facts in each stage are the products of the interpretation of objective events by the litigation subjects with language,and its nature is the intersubjective language construction.Narrative construction of case facts.Narration or storytelling is the basic way of constructing facts,and the Story Model is the basic schema of facts construction.The formation of case facts is a process of language construction by the litigation subjects around the events,and is the result of narrative construction of evidence based on objective facts,during which it has evolved from evidence to event and then from event to fact.The narrators integrate fragmented evidence information into a complete and coherent story model through narrative strategies and rhetorical techniques,and narrative strategies such as selection,interpretation,and addition run through this activity of language construction.Rhetorical construction of case facts.The formation of case facts is a process in which the litigation subjects construct the objective events with the help of language.In this process,rhetoric plays an instrumental role in decorating and strengthening the effect of language expression at the micro level,and more importantly,it plays an ontological role in constructing the facts of the case itself at the macro level.The construction at the macro ontological level mainly includes story plot construction,character image construction,and context construction,while the construction at the micro instrumental level includes control strategies(such as strategic questioning,reformulating,evaluative third part,presupposition,leading questions)and anti-control strategies(such as anti-reformulating,anti-presupposition,antileading).Factors influencing the language construction of case facts.The construction of case facts is a process in which different litigation subjects communicate rationally to reach a consensus by means of language.In this process,the formation of case facts is influenced by many subjective and objective factors.Subjective factors mainly refer to various individual factors of the fact constructors,while objective factors mainly refer to legal and social factors.Due to the influence of many subjective and objective factors,the case facts constructed by means of language are tailored and filtered facts,are facts which have been processed.Such facts are bound to have a certain degree of discrepancy with the objective fact.Validity of the language construction of case facts.The evaluation criteria for the validity of the language construction of case facts include three dimensions: authenticity,legality(legitimateness in law)and rationality(acceptability),in which authenticity corresponds to the truth requirement of the objective world,legality to the legitimacy requirement of the normative world(legal norm),and rationality to the acceptability requirement of the social world(logical experience).The validity characteristics of case facts construction include the coverage of evidence,the completeness of the plot,the coherence of the narrative,the logic of the narrative,the uniqueness of the story version,and the legality of the story.Through systematic analysis,this dissertation aims to demonstrate and explain that the case facts are not mainly “proved” or “discovered”,but rather are gradually constructed by different legal subjects through the intersubjective negotiation and communication.Language is the basic means of constructing case facts,and narrative and rhetoric are the basic ways of its construction.The validity of case facts constructed in this way involves not only “truth”,but also “legality”,“rationality” and “acceptability”.