The Legal Reasoning In The Civil Action In China

At the present time, the jurisprudence circle of China has started to pay attention to the study of legal reasoning. However, as essential methods for judges to conclude reasonable and legitimate civil judgments and verdicts and thus to reach judicial justice, the judiciary circle of China shall also attach much importance to the research of legal reasoning. As core of the whole judgments and verdicts, reason for judges to reach their conclusions and key element for the parties to willingly accept the judgments and verdicts, reasoning part in civil judgments and verdicts holds great significance. However, problems of ambiguity and equivocality existing in most of the reasoning parts lead to increasing burden of legal departments and numerous waste of judicial resources. Therefore, reformation and perfection of the reasoning part of civil judgments and verdicts are in great necessity and urgency. Based on statement of general theory of legal reasoning in civil litigation, comparative investigation on styles and features of legal reasoning in civil and common law countries, analysis on problems encountered in legal reasoning of Chinese judicial practice and causation thereof, in respect of advanced experience of other countries and specific practical situations of our country, this paper sets forth various ways of application of legal reasoning methods on different types of civil cases, and puts forward suitable suggestions on reforming and improving the reasoning part of Chinese civil judgments and verdicts.This paper is divided into four chapters. Chapter one narrates basic theory of legal reasoning in civil litigation. Definition and features of legal reasoning are firstly clarified in this chapter and four commonly-used legal reasoning methods including deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, analogy reasoning and substantive reasoning are respectively and specifically enunciated in the following part.Chapter two elaborates specific manifestation of legal reasoning in civil judgments and verdicts, mainly including application of legal reasoning methods in judicial procedures of civil trial and deliberation as well as in civil judgments and verdicts.Chapter three comparatively investigates legal reasoning styles and features in civil judgments and verdicts of the countries in common law and civil law systems.As the most significant part of the whole paper, chapter four sets forth suggestions on reformation and perfection of legal reasoning in the judicial practice of China. Problems encountered in civil litigation of our country and the causation thereof are firstly enumerated and analyzed in this chapter, closely followed is the application of legal reasoning methods on different types of civil cases; then the famous controversial "Nanjing Peng Yu Case" is used as living example to be decomposed and analyzed. Finally put forward in this chapter are suggestions on reformation and perfection of the reasoning part of civil judgments and verdicts in our country, which are explored and concluded through drawing advanced experience of foreign countries and integrating such experience into the practical conditions of our country.