Expert Assistant System Of China In Civil Action

Along with the development of social science and technology, there are more and more specialized problems appearing in the lawsuit. Judges, because of lack of their own knowledge, are unable to deal with those specialized problems with their own knowledge, so experts are needed to investigate thoroughly the case fact in each country. In countries of Anglo-American law system, expert witness system is applied in which expert witnesses are invited to appear in count to give explanations by the litigants, while in countries of continental law system, examiner system is applied in which examiners are invited by judges. Both systems have their own advantages after many years of practice in trying cases for judges, however, their disadvantages are becoming increasingly prominent. The current expertise system of our country is similar to practice of continental law system, that is, when meeting specialized details which judges are unable to verify by themselves, they may entrust the related judicial organization to identify, but there are imperfection both in legislative regulations and in trial practice. In Article 61 in Several Rules of Supreme People's Court on Civil Action Evidence ( hereinafter referred to as Rules on Evidence )adopted on April 1, 2002, the concept of expert assistant is first put forward, which allows the party to apply to invite persons with professional knowledge to give explanations on specialized problems and to be inquires. From then on the situation, in which the expert's conclusion has the last word, has been changed, and the expert assistant system coexists with examiner system. This is the progress in legislation, however very a few stipulations can't meet the need of trial practice, and many courts have difficulties when applying those regulations. This essay, based on introducing the expert witness system in countries of Anglo-American law system and technical advisor system in Italy, analyzes good points of Article 61 of Rules on Evidence, defines the similarities and differences between expert assistant and related concepts and put forwards some ideas on setting expert assistant..