A Thinking On The Reform Of Judgment Documents

Judgment documents refer to valid judicial documents that the court makes in terms of entities and procedures of the case in the process of judging various kinds of cases. It emerges from and serves judicial activities and it is the panoramic record and reflection of judicial activities. In nature, it is the embodiment of national judicial authority of people's court and the ultimate carrier of judicial results. As legal documents, it is indispensable when declaring judicial justice to the public and publicizing legal system. Besides, it is an important symbol of the quality of handling legal cases by the court. Judgment documents is legitimate, authoritative, reasonable and standardized, so it can play the role of identifying the rights and obligations of the party concerned, publicizing laws and cultivating public sense and it is the valid carrier to prove the legality of judgment and promote the improvement of judicial authoritativeness; it can facilitate the party concerned to accept the judgment without further litigation, alleviate social conflicts and enhance judicial authoritativeness. In our country, judgments that were recorded in detail in history firstly appeared in the period of East and West Zhou. From that time to 1999, when our country reformed criminal judgment documents, it is discovered that judgments in ancient times put emphasis on explanation of reasons of judgment and features of expression of words in different periods, while judgment documents in modern time tends to demonstrate process of judgment, demonstrate justice and adopt method of open trial. At present, in our country, judgment documents is deficient in factual statement, structure arrangement, reason explanation and so on. These problems are related to factors of concepts, system, subject, traditions etc. The reform of judgment documents is making progress. The author thinks that when the court reforms judgment documents, it shall abide by following principles: first, principle of complete content, judgment documents shall reflect major issues of the litigation completely and makes reasons for judgment public; second, principle of reasonable structure, that is, reasonably fix the pattern of writing structure of judgment documents according to the basic mode of ongoing litigations and features of rules of litigations; third, principle of adequate argument, the essence of justice is to explain reasons of judgment. The judge shall give adequate argument in trial and this is his obligation; fourth, principle of basing on individual case, statement of facts and evidence and explanation of reasons of judgment shall based on practical conditions of individual case, so that the judgment is directed; fifth, principle of keeping style of legal language, this principle shows the seriousness of law. In order to improve the quality of judgment documents, it is necessary to consolidate the construction of the supporting systems, such as, improve litigation system, establish system of publicizing judgment documents, establish system of examination and evaluation of judgment documents and reform system of selection and appointment of judges, thus to create a good environment for the writing of judgment documents. The pattern of writing of judgment documents shall also be reformed. First, the structure of judgment documents shall be reformed so that the making of judgment documents can live up to the requirements of mode of litigations and adequately show the confrontation between the two parties concerned in court. Explanation shall concentrate on proving propositions of the party that shall assume the liability, that is, the plaintiff and analyzing evidence. It is unnecessary to re-write the facts that have been investigated. Second, the writing of facts shall be complete and detailed. To be complete means to contain the propositions of the plaintiff and the accused completely and to be detailed means to accurately and concisely write down facts and evidence that have been determined in court in appropriate perspective, content and method of narration. There are two ways of writing. First, way of focus conclusion and determinaiton, that is, summarize facts and evidence that the parties concerned agree on before and in trial, list the focuses that the two parties do not agree on, then in terms of each focus, write down propositions and evidence by the two parties respectively, questions of the evidence by the party concernced, the suggestions for determinantion after evidence analysis by the judge and finally conclude and determine facts. Second, way of centralized evaluation and analysis, that is, after summarizing facts and requests proposed by the party concerned before and in trial, focus on the request of litigation by the party concerned, put the determination of facts on the premise of centralized determination of evidence, divide evidence into determined evidence and undetermined evidence, comment on every content and reason and conclude facts of determined evidence and proof. The writing of the whole judgement documents shall be closely related to determination of evidence. When quoting evidence, write down the origin of the evidence, relationship between the witness and the plaintiff and the relationship between the witness and the accused so that people will consider the origin of the evidence as legitimate and reliable. The evidence shall be judged from the perspective of objectivity, legality and relevance. Strengthen the analysis of disputed evidence and make it more directed. Third, consolidate reasons of judgemnt. 1. It is necessary to put emphasis on jurisprudential analysis. The nature of jurisprudential analysis is the legal explanation by the judge in trial. Through adequate argument, activate the law on paper into applibale law to solve actual disputes. The argument shall be directed. 2. Reasonable analysis shall be added to judgment documents. The core of reasons is public order and good morals. The relationship between reason and law is, in nature, the relationship between morals and law. Based on principle of legality, according to socialist concepts, laws can make appropriate adaptations to tally with sensibilities. Fourth, make opinions of collegial bench public. Select some different opinions of collegial bench and make them open to the public. Mainly choose civil and commercial cases that there is some dispute in law but it won't lead to the sharp confrontation of the parties concerned, influence social stability and so on. Make the content open to the public; adopt reasonable way of expression to make the process of judgment more public and demonstrate the fairness of judgment of the court. Fourth, cancel trial report. The trail judge decides whether the trial report shall be written interms of individual cases. The content of the report is confined to the content that cannot be written into judgment documents. Judgment documents shall replace trial report and assume its function. Fifth, emphasize efficiency and separate "complicated"from "simple". Whether the case is difficult or easy determines the "complicated"or "simple"way of making judgment documents. "Complicated"means to explain and expound adequately in terms of complicated cases and problems. "Simple"means that judgment documents can be made as simple and concise, using filled documents to reduce cost and improve efficiency in terms of simple cases or cases of clear disputes.