On The Uncertainty Of Factual Determination In Judicial Judgment

Judicial decision can be abstracted as a syllogism substantially. The whole syllogism is built on judging fact, which is predominant for law application to produce justifiable judgment. Namely, judgment can be achieved accurately and timely only if the judge is completely aware of the truth behind the back. However, judicial practices have witnessed plenty of unjust and wrong verdicts because of uncertain fact-finding. Anyway, the uncertainty of fact-finding is objective and can hardly be exterminated. Given that, it is valuable to investigate the characters of fact-finding and the reason why it is able to exist in judicial judgment. To achieve that goal, the article reviews and analyzes the core issues of the uncertainty in fact-finding. There are three main chapters of the text besides introduction and conclusion, which are:In first chapter, the connotation about fact-finding is discussed, including conceptions of fact and fact-finding and the methodology and uncertainty of fact-finding. Following the legal process which begins with fact acceptance and ends up with fact validation, the author divides the fact into three levels:disputed fact, case fact and judging fact. The identification of each level is based on the corresponding location in fact-finding procedure. Accordingly, the methods for identification contain the principle of evidentiary adjudication, inference method, rule of thumb etc.. Finally, the main investigated issue is come up with after the aforementioned discussion----the uncertainty of fact-finding.The analysis for the origin of uncertainty of fact-finding is done in chapter2which is the central part of this article. The author discusses the reasons of the uncertainty production from three perspectives, including the major body and the fact itself and the judicial process. By dissecting the relevant factors under each perspective, it brings the reality that the uncertainty of fact-finding is inevitable.In chapter3, the influence and resolutions for the uncertainty of fact-finding are explored. It is a critical issue to validate the certainty of fact-finding which is vital important to assure the fairness and justice of judicial decision and establish the society with rule of law. Luckily, the uncertainty is limited in fact. As such, judicial practitioner should learn more about the reason of uncertainty and establish the rules and system to bring it under control to respond and reduce its drawbacks and implement the administration of justice more fairly.