On The Corroboration Rule

The corroboration rule is an important safeguard to prevent miscarriage of justice. Nevertheless, only one article (Article 46) which has something to do with this rule can be found in Chinese Criminal Procedure Law, and this only article does not deal with such problems as which kind of confession is required to be corroborated and how to corroborate the confession of the accomplice. Hence, it is not sufficient to depend only on this article to prevent errors in conviction. This dissertation defines"confession"and"corroboration rule"in a comparative perspective, and it examines some important issues such as the relationship between the corroboration rule and the free proof doctrine,the rationale of the corroboration rule and so on. The author's main points are as follows:â… .If the accused only admits a little proportion of the offences , his statements can not be called"confession"but"admission". Adimission is different from confession and it is not required to be corroborated.â…¡.The allegation of the accused is not included by"confession".â…¢.The corroboration rule applies only on the occasion when the factfinder is convinced of the guilt on the sole ground of the confession.â…£. The corroboration rule provides an exception of the free proof doctrine.â…¤.The corroboration rule is designed to prevent errors in conviction, not to hold torture back. â…¥.All the confessions, whether they are made on the court or out of the court, should be corroborated.â…¦.The corroboration rule does not require that the corroborating evidence prove the offences independently. It is sufficient that the corroborating evidence can prove the misconducts with the assistance of the confession.â…§.The confession of the accomplice should be corroborated when it is used to prove the other accomplice's guilt, and the corroborating evidence for the accomplice's confession should not be the other accomplice's confession.