The Burden Of Proof In Adminstrative Cases On The Disclosure

《Regulation of the People’s Republic of China on the Disclosureof Government Information》(hereinafter referred to as regulation) wasimplemented on May1,2008, indicating the information disclosuresystem begins to carry into execution officially in the whole state. Inrecent years, the rate of the administrative cases on the disclosure ofgovernment information in the administrative judgment increases withyears. But, for this new field, there are lots of problems in the practice ofthe system. As the development of the work on the disclosure ofgovernment information, the spread of the E-government affairs and theenhancement of the Civil Rights consciousness, the kinds of thegovernment information involved in the administrative cases on thedisclosure of government information are increased day by day, thelitigation-related administration departments refer to many fields, and thesituations in which the administration departments lose the case areincreased accordingly. The administration departments lose the cases formany reasons, such as weak evidence awareness and lack ofunderstanding of the proof rules, which reflects that the responding ability needs to be improved. Thus, it can be seen that the burden of proofplays an important role in the activities of the administrative case on thedisclosure of government information. Proof is important in the judgmentand has a critical affect on the subsequent cross-examination andauthentication. The proof rule can provide the judge with an objectivebasis for discerning the truth, and is also an important yardstick fordetermining whether the litigant can win or lose the case.This paper will analyze the burden of proof, sum up experience, androughly summarize the hearing of cases under various situations in thejudgment, by studying the cases on the disclosure of governmentinformation heard recently in the Shanghai People’s High Court. Inaddition to the Preamble, this paper includes four chapters as follows:The first chapter will provide an overview of the administrativecases on disclosure of government information in Shanghai People’s HighCourt, and highlights the difference and feature of the administrativecases on disclosure of government information as compared with thecommon administrative cases. The first chapter further analyzes thereason for the administration department losing cases in the cases ondisclosure of government information, thereby highlighting theimportance of the burden of proof.The second chapter will specifically analyze the distribution of theburden of proof when the government information is absent and definitude the burden of proof for the plaintiff and defendant, inconjunction with the cases.The third chapter will study the burden of proof when thegovernment information is kept secret and definitude the distribution ofthe burden of proof in the cases referring to the State secrets, Commercialsecrets and personal privacy and “Three security one stability” cases.The fourth chapter will propose a basic judging conception for thedistribution of the burden of proof in conjunction with the cases, such ascases on rejecting correction and cases referring to “three requirements”.