The Study On The Legitimacy Of The Audio-Visual Materials Secretly Recorded Of Civil Litigation

As a form of audio-visual materials, the audio-visual materials secretly recorded of civil litigation have become a focus for people to pay attention to. As a result of the increasing cases revolving secretly taken or recorded materials, the legitimacy of the audio-visual materials secretly recorded as evidence of civil litigation has come to be the focus of both the theoretical circle and judicial circle. In 2015, the Supreme People’s Court promulgated the Interpretation on Applying the Law of Civil Procedure of the People’s Republic of China. In it, there are some provisions concerning the audio-visual materials secretly recorded of civil litigation, which makes people to pay attention to the legitimacy of these audio-visual materials. However, this interpretation is not perfect and there are some defects in it. It is lack of explicit standards for the legitimacy of the audio-visual materials secretly recorded of civil litigation, which has caused the courts all over the country to make different judgments for the cases involving the secretly taken or recorded materials. Therefore, it is urgent to bring the function of the audio-visual materials into full play in the civil litigation of our country, to regulate the standards for the legitimacy of the audio-visual materials secretly recorded in practice, and to promote the unification of judicial judgment. The thesis starts from the connotation of the standards for the legitimacy of the audio-visual materials secretly recorded of civil litigation, makes a comparative study of the standards for the legitimacy in other countries. Then, based on the analysis of the current situation of its legislation and judiciary and in combination with the latest provisions of the modified Law of Civil Procedure and the Supreme People’s Court’s Interpretation on Applying the Law of Civil Procedure of the People’s Republic of China of 2015, the thesis puts forward some suggestions on the standards for the legitimacy of the audio-visual materials secretly recorded of the civil litigation so as to be helpful to the further improvement of the legislation on the procedures of civil litigation in China.