On The Application Of In Dubio Pro Reo

In dubio pro reo is that the court can’t exclude doubt of facts after exhaust evidencerule as to the cognizance of substantive crime facts during the criminal trial activities,and then the court should make favorable recognition to the defendant. Referred toprinciple, what is most controversial is the scope of application in the criminal lawtheory of our country. Basically, the dispute is the following two aspects. The first iswhether the principle would be applicable or not when legal doubts happen. Thesecond is whether the principle should be applied when doubts happened in facts ofprocedural law. Actually, in dubio pro reo can only be used to resolve the doubt of fact,but not the law. When the use of law is suspected, legal interpretation should beapplied. As to the doubt of procedural law fact, it can be solved with the use of freeevaluation of evidence by the judge, rather than the application of in dubio pro reo.In dubio pro reo has severe restrictive condition in the application of particularcases. Specifically, the suspectable facts must be the elements of crime and affectpunishment and sentencing and the doubt should base on reasonable objective facts.The element of reasonable doubt should be according to the standpoint of public, notof the individual idea of judge. The application of this rule should be after evaluationrules. If the court can prove the crime by the use of the latter, and so as to rule out thedoubt, the former should not be applied.The applicable scope of in dubio pro reo principle lies in the doubts of substantivecrime facts. In particular, it is mainly available for the establishment of crime (such ascausality, the objective imputation, intent and negligence and joint offence, etc.) andquantity-in-crime, punishment of crime problems, and other areas of the substantivelaw.