About Expert Witness System

As a specific proof system, expert witness system has been playing an extraordinary important role in litigation in the British and American legal system. And also, it is a vivid textbook for Chinese judicial system. In China, the current appraiser system follows the continental legal system, in which the appraiser system has been turned into an authority, and the judge plays a leading role in the litigation process. Parties failed to own or exercise the right to enquire towards the appraisal conclusion; appraisers do not have to explain how the appraisal conclusion was made and what principles the conclusion is based on. Therefore, the judge can not tell the truth of the appraisal conclusion, and the justice of the sentence is not able to be guaranteed. To solve problems listed above, we need to learn how the expert testimony system is applied in those countries, in which the legal system is sounder, and take their experience as our conference. This makes it necessary to do research about expert witness system if we want to strengthen our evidence legal system.This article tries to provide some suggestion to the reform of identification system in China by studying and comparing expert witness systems in British and American legal system and China's legal system. There are about 3, 3000 characters, and 4 parts in this article.In the first chapter, the main content is the general introduction of the expert witness,including qualification, appointment, and responsibilities. As an expert witness, thecorresponding qualification and neutral standpoint are necessary to help the judge make ajustice sentence. The appointment system decides who will do the appointment and who willbe appointed to do the testimony, this is the key to the expert witness system. The expertwitness should performance corresponding obligations and take corresponding legalresponsibilities, including civil liability and criminal liability. This is one of the ways toguarantee the truth of the evidence. Along the process of its development, expert witnesssystem keeps reforming and strengthening.Part two contains the cross-examination and proof authentication of the expert's witness. Expert witness system plays an important role in litigation in British and American legal system because its cross-examination and proof authentication systems are highly developed. In British and American legal system, all the evidences must be shown in public before court to limit the use of oral evidence and the sudden attack during the court trail. Cross-examination is applied during the court trail to question experts' testimony, so that the judge can make the correct decision. The judge reviews experts' testimony to guarantee the correction and liability of it. Of course, the cross-examination and proof authentication of the expert's witness system is not perfect, reforms and adjustments are made to evidence discovery system and cross-examination system to improve the efficiency of lawsuit. And, in the mean time, with the development of science and technology, the content and principles of acceptable examination will surely be adjusted.Part three makes comment to expert witness system. Every system has advantages and disadvantages; expert witness system has no exception. The advantages of expert witness system lie in those aspects: The competitions, confrontation between both parties guarantee the correction and liability of the experts' testimony, make sure judge and the jury clearly understand. Thus, the lawsuit right of both parties is equally protected, and the procedural justice is realized. The disadvantages are also obvious: The litigation procedure is too long, makes more cost. The personal fondness of the experts is unavoidable, which will affect the objectivity and justice of experts' testimony.In the fourth chapter, by taking expert witness system as conference, specific suggestions are made to identification system in China. Problems exist in China's identification system. The initiation system in judicial expertise, procedure, cross-examination and proof authentication system, supervision mechanism are still the blanks, a sound identification system is still on its way coming. But, all these disadvantages can be solved by applying expert witness system. In this article, based on expert witness system and the actual situation in China, suggestions are provided on reforming and strengthening to our identification system: With strengthening management and responsibilities to appraisers, appraisers' testimony system should be improved to guarantee the objectivity and justice of the appraisal conclusion. To grant parties right to initiate judicial expertise, to establish and strengthen expert assessor system, so the right for both parties can be guaranteed. At the same time, to strengthen the cross-examination system of the appraisal conclusion, make sure judge's awards is based on correct and object appraisal conclusion, to realize procedural justice.