On In Dubio Pro Reo

In dubio pro reo, refers to the favorable conclusions which should be made to the defendant when there are doubts difficult to handle in identifying the substance criminal fact during the criminal procedures. Nowadays, the researches to in dubio pro reo in China are unsystematic and do not receive sufficient attention yet. Furthermore, there is misreads to this principle to a certain extent. Even though people from the justice practical field who actually do not know much about this principle will use the principle to settle cases, which causes the application unstandardization. However, it is undoubted that in dubio pro reo is extremely significant to criminal justice since it almost applies to the settlement of all the cases with doubts. And these cases with doubts are very common in criminal justice. In view of the above-mentioned reasons, it is the aim of this paper to do necessary researches to in dubio pro reo with the expectation of clarifying the relative knowledge and standardizing the practices.This paper consists of six chapters.Chapter One is Introduction which briefly introduces the basic definition and research meaning of in dubio pro reo.Chapter Two introduces the ideological sources of in dubio pro reo in both western countries and China, and then analyses the legitimation of favorable conclusions to defendants with doubts from three aspects—human rights protection, benefits measurement and features of criminal procedures.Chapter Three analyses the orientation of in dubio pro reo and points out that it is a judgment rule which essentially guides the judges how to make a decision when no assurance is formed with its double attribute of substance and procedure. Meanwhile, this chapter makes a comparison between this principle and the innocence presumption principle and points out their differences even though the two are closely related.Chapter Four focuses on the application aspects of in dubio pro reo which enjoys the best theoretical and practical values from two aspects: application premise and consequence.As for the application premise, this chapter points out that this principle applies to the situation when reasonable doubts exist in the substance facts related to punishment fits the crime, but doesn't apply to the clarification of pure law-related doubts or the situation when suspects exist in the procedure facts. At the same time, the chapter explains how to identify reasonable doubts, whose processes will be limited by reasonable deduction and can not break the law of experience or the science rule.As for the application consequence, this chapter analyses the advantages to the defendants under four situations when the facts have doubts between guilty and innocence, several crimes and one crime, felony and misdemeanor, and have doubts in heavier punishment, lighter punishment and mitigation of penalty below minimum statutory prescript. However, the degree of these advantages is limited by the explicit regulation of the law.Chapter Five discusses the alternative conviction briefly. Alternative conviction refers to the application of the lighter punishment, with the consideration of fairness and avoiding improper innocence decision, to the defendant, whose behavior at least falls into one crime of two or more than two crimes, while whose crime cannot be demonstrated exactly. Thus, alternative conviction is an exception or limitation of in dubio pro reo.Chapter Six is Conclusion.The paper has three outstanding points as below:-1. This paper is written with the reach method combines theory with case analysis. The theoretical part mainly focuses on the definition of in dubio pro reo and its theory bases, orientation and nature, application premier and consequence, and alternative conviction, which is combined with some typical case analysis, which are mainly adapted from the real cases.-2 .There are many problems in identifying and settling the doubt crimes in the justice practice since there is no explicit regulations for in dubio pro reo in China which receives not enough attention from the academe. In view of this situation, this paper focuses on the discussion of the application problem of in dubio pro reo based on relative theories and practices from Germany and Taiwan in China, and analyses in detail its application premier and consequence in order to make it more practical, and finally can push relative legislation and standardize the practices of China.-3. This paper makes clear its idea about the disputes that whether in dubio pro reo can apply to the clarification of pure law-related doubts and the situations with doubts of procedure facts, even though in dubio pro reo is accepted by the chief section of criminal law.