Study Of Cross-examination System Of Forensic Conclusions

The Decision of the Standing Committee of National People's Congress On Judicial Appraisal Management (hereinafter referred as the Decision) , which was passed by on 28 February 2005 and implemented on 1 October, 2005, stipulated:"Judicial Appraisal is the activity of the appraiser to distinguish and judge the special problem occurred in the proceeding and provide appraisal opinion by applying science and technology or experts."Judicial appraisal conclusion is the factual and scientific judgment made by appraiser on basis of the appraisal, examination and analysis of the materials. Its function is to ascertain the connection between physical evidence and the facts of a case so that such evidence can produce the value of legal evidence. Appraisal conclusion has the characteristic of validity, objectivity and scientificity. But on the other hand, the start and implemented of the appraisal procedures as well as the adoption of the conclusion all rely on the particular individual and therefore the conclusion is inevitably marked with subjective factors. The Chinese Procedure Laws used to regard appraiser as"an indifferent participant"and the appraisal conclusion as scientific conclusion, but under-estimated the subjectivity of appraisal conclusion, which obstruct its full function as legal evidence. All three procedure laws and their judicial interpretations require the appraiser to appear at the court and testify his conclusion. The Decision further lay down a principle rule that"if any party is dissent with the appraisal conclusion in a lawsuit, the appraiser shall appear in the court upon the notice of the court". Based on the situation that the appraise organization become more and more privatized and profit-oriented as well as the reality that the appraiser hardly appear at the court, this article by learning from the successful experiences of two major legal systems, proposes to establish and perfect a concrete systems, including a series of support systems, to enforce the appraiser's appearance obligation.