Study On The Conviction On Evidence Principle In Modern Criminal Procedure

Conviction on Evidence (hereafter as CoE) is considered to be the fundamental principle of modern criminal procedure .Punishing criminals must be based on fact, whereas, the fact needs evidence .That decides the fundamental status of CoE. The desertion aims at analyzing the basic content of CoE principle thoroughly and proposing the prospects for perfecting the criminal CoE guarantee system in China.Chapter One The origin of CoE principleIn this chapter, the historical conviction has been divided into two calegorical: one is CoE , procedure by evidence. CoE can be further divided into traditional CoE and modern CoE; The other is procedure by materials without evidence ,mainly refers to'Conviction on God'(hereafter as CoG)CoG has been widely accepted by different nations in ancient. It is said that when a criminal cannot be judged whether guilty or not by man, they have to ask for help from God. The simplest method is to test whether he can escape from a risk. CoG has been applied as the general method of procedure by almost every ancient nation, however, according to ancient materials and the analysis on unique characteristics of our ancient countries, no CoG has been existing since then. CoE belongs to the type of irrational criminal conviction, however, it functions much more powerful as the ascertainment method than that understood at present. With the flurishment and development of rationality. The rationality and dependability of CoG has been doubted. As a result,'CoG'disappears gradually and CoE plays a role on the stage. Previously, evidence was only asked to possess the quality of attesting and the ability of evidence was not required. The purpose of procedure emphasizes discovering truth, punishing criminals, but the human rights and procedure justice are hardly pursued. Therefore, it comes to a conclusion that the value of CoE at that time is not the same as that of the modern CoE. We call the previous CoE the traditional CoE for conwinence. Every country pays great attention to human rights guarantee and procedure justice due to democracy, equality and freedom. CoE is endowed with new content and requirement. The evidence which used to test truth must have the ability of evidence which law required, moreover, it has to be verdicted by the judge on certain occasions, only all that works, can it be called modern CoE.Chapter Tow The theoretical fundation of modern CoE principleIn this chapter, it mainly discusses CoE is theoretieally based on rationality of procedure, guarantee of human rights and authority of conviction. Generally speaking, one of the fundamental requirement of rationality is to clarify basis and reasons for every judgement , conclusion and decision; however, CoE principle is the cognitive rule of providing basis and reasons for judgement. CoE principle asks decisions on fact of conviction to be based on evidence and any other subjective conjecture or assumption cannot be taken into consideration. That is to say, all the antirational cognition is prevented from being the basis of judgement. Establishing CoE is the requirement of for legitimacy and evidence competence due to the purpose on human rights guarantee. CoE deliminates the evidence imcompetence by the way of in human torture, compelling admission, illegal imprison, profless search, distraining and etc. Modern CoE embodies the ideas of respecting human rights and dignity. Therefore, human rights is bound to be the theoretical foundation of modern CoE. Authority is demanded to maintain peace by society, however, authority does not depend on power, but the confirmation and agreement by citizens. CoE principle improves greatly compared with CoG on the aspect of discovering objective facts. CoE principle asks the judgement to be supported by evidence, in that way, it avoids subjective assumption or other evidence imcompetence being the basis of conviction. Therefore, judiciary affirmation is enhanced. That makes the discovery of fact scientific and rational; embodies the prestige of judiciary conviction; forces the credibility of judges and maintains authority of judicature.Chapter Three Entitled the fundamental content of modern CoE principleIn this chapter, a critical survey on the essence, functioning scale and exception of CoE principle is mainly analyzed. Modern CoE principle in short, is the principle which has to be depended on evidence in ascertaining fact during procedure. Modern CoE principle requires the evidence which judges follow must be that of evidence competence. The procedure of lawsuit turns to be the procedure of ascertainment by evidence due to the reasons proposed by both parties in CoE are to considered to be evidence. Therefore, the method of defining the scale of CoE is through defining what kind of fact controversy has to be ascertained by CoE. The fact in entity law acting as the basis of ascertainment has been accepted widely, thus, the fact in procedure can be regarded as that in CoE principle, since the fact in CoE principle is to ascertain, that is to say, it is the conviction target of CoE principle. It is greatly accepted that procedure fact can be recognized as the conviction target. Therefore, procedure fact is the conviction target in CoE principle.The functioning scale of CoE principle covers the overall criminal procedure due to the followings: wherever the value of CoE principle exists, it must function there; the property of human rights guarantee CoE principle possessed determines which part of procedure is conviction. In addition, the value which CoE principle pursued exists in both stage and pre-stage of conviction. In modern criminal procedure, CoE is not the only method that ascertains fact. Exceptions do exist in CoE principle, for instance, judiciary cognition and deduction. Since deduction and judiciary cognition are not regulated in our criminal law, judiciary practice is mixed up extremely. In order to carry modern CoE through, and make procedure more efficient, the practical and feasible fact practised has to be evaluated as legal law deduction, and factual scale which criminal judiciary cognition applied has to be regulated definitely.Chapter Four The modern conviction on evidence principle and the perfection of modern criminal procedure in ChinaIn this chapter, an analysis on the present status of CoE principle in China is diagnosed. Additionally, some attentatice assnmptions of CoE principle and guarantee system in pre-conviction and conviction stages are proposed as well. At present, file is still considered as the core in our criminal procedure, and most attesters choose not to ascertain in court due to the above, judges find it is difficult to examine the evidence competence. Therefore, the evidence applied in ascertaining fact cannot guarantee the evidence competence which law demanded. That severely violates the intrinsic requirement of modern CoE principle. As a result, it is essential to establish the judiciary censorship and adjudicating illustration system in the pre-conviction stage on the one hand; testimony approvement system and indictment unity system in conviction system on the other hand.