The Economic Analysis Of Witness Action In Criminal Cases

The methods of the economics brought law new turning point of development. Zhu Suli said,"《Economic Analysis Of Law》in 1973 brought the domain of law a revolution". Strong ability of explanation enables us to see clearly the truth of law "difficulties". This article used methods of economic analysis to discuss theories related to criminal witness. The analysis of this article not only confined to discussion in defects of the law, but also classified criminal witness as new types according to the distance of relations. Through concrete analysis of different types of witness, to find out the crux of difficulties which exist in the course of providing evidence by criminal witness, so that we can suit the remedy to the case.The introduction is to narrate the function of evidence in the process of the administration of justice. It outlines three respects related to criminal witness. That is the current situation of criminal witness in administration of justice, in regulations, in academic research. From these we can see the complete picture roughly about criminal witness in present stage.The second part is the classification of criminal witness, which is the premise of the whole article. Criminal witness is classified as accidental witness, active witness, and stained witness according to the relation distance between the criminal and the criminal witness.The third part is the economic analysis of the action of accidental witness. The witness doesn't want to provide evidence mainly related to this type of witness. Firstly it is the key to discuss "the logic of collective action" to the difficulty. There are two types of social control corresponding to the different social environment (society of acquaintances, society of strangers) of different type of witness. That is reputation control and public power control.The fourth part is the economic analysis of active witness. The instinct of revenge is related to this type of witness, on which interpret this topic in detail based. It analyses that the active witness provide evidence and search for other evidence positively. It is concluded that this is the order without law.The fifth part is the economic analysis of stained witness. Firstly to analyses the nature of "the underworld", because stained witness exists in organizational crimes. There is a game between the public prosecutors and the criminals when the former strive for the witness's support. The results of the game decide the quantity and quality of evidence provided by stained witness.The conclusion is that the difficulty of not providing evidence is mainly exists in accidental witness and stained witness. And to design suitable law according to different situation, so that we can make up the defects of public compulsory, and avoid the unnecessary waste of public resources.