Privilege Rules Of Evidence Study

Ever since China took on an opening-up policy and with more and more of its involvement in the international civil-commercial matters, there is also an arising need for Chinese citizens and enterprises to participate more therein. To be familiar with the related rules of evidence applied in international civil-commercial matters, especially the British and American rules of evidence, seems to be very important. Compared with other rules of evidence, the rules of privileged evidence turns out to be of some special features of which their application may be of great significance for the protection of privacy right. The purpose of this thesis lies in the fact that China is preparing for the enactment of its own Law of Evidence and the author hopes that the study and research on the rules of privileged evidence in British and American Laws of Evidence shall function as reference in the process of legislation of Chinese Evidence Law.By way of comparisons, logical analysis and positivism, the author firstly introduces the definition, origins, development, patterns and application of rules of privileged evidence in British and American Laws of Evidence. Then he systematically analyzes and investigates some major categories of rules of privileged evidence including legal professional privilege, without prejudice privilege and common interest privilege. After a brief study of the negative effects of the rules of privileged evidence, he finally puts forward a framework of the possible rules of privileged evidence which might be an essential part of the Chinese Evidence Law in terms of patterns of legislation, scope of applicable privileges, negative effects, procedures before trial and exclusion of privileges.