The Distribution Of Burden Of Proof On Network Virtual Property Disputes

Internet plays an important role in all aspects of the information society，influencing andchanging people’s behavior, and also has given rise to a series of unprecedented new things,such as the network virtual property. With the continuous progress of society and the rapiddevelopment of the network economy, the network virtual property permeates the real lifefrom the virtual cyberspace gradually and takes real value, thus it triggers a lot of practicalproblems, which have become the focus of society. However, the lag of the legislation onnetwork virtual property disputes leads to no unified standard on dealing with them in thejudicial practice. The burden of proof has no clear delimitation, thus causing different judicialdecisions and making a bad influence on judicial authority and the legal process. The internetusers who suffer losses and injustice have bitter grievances because of the lack of the legalprotection and the burden of proof of fuzzy. So, it is necessary to research the subject forjurisprudents for rights of the internet users and the judicial authority.No matter in theory or in practice, there are different objections about the concept of thenetwork virtual property among different scholars and this divergence makes it moredifficulty to study the network virtual property. Similarity, the burden of proof encounters thesame question, let alone the distribution of the virtual property dispute’s burden of proof. Thearticle analyses the distribution of the network virtual property dispute’s burden of proofbetween the network operators and users via a real case. Then with the help of the relevantlegal argument, a conclusion based on the legal and fact is drawn. Specifically, this articlediscusses the distribution of the network virtual property dispute’s burden of proof in fouraspects.Firstly, a case about the virtual property dispute is cited and the different opinions andthe focus disputes are summarized.Secondly, around the focus of disputes, the connotation, characteristics of the networkvirtual property are introduced, and the characteristics of the virtual property dispute areanalyzed, what’s more, combined with the definition of the concept of burden of proof andseveral famous theory including the theory of classification of legal requirements the dangerfield and interests measure theory, the distribution of burden of proof standard suitable fordisputes is summarized and the virtual property dispute’s burden of proof between both sides are discussed.Thirdly, the different judgments on the lawsuit between Mr Zhang and the networkcompany, respectively on a contract and tort action are analyzed, based the theories mentionedin the second part.Lastly, research implications. Legal problems found in the process of practice arediscussed in the fourth part. In the same time, some proposals which can solve these problemsare offered by the author. Specifically, the author would like to put four proposals:establishing special network virtual property law; improving the supporting mechanism ofnetwork virtual property law; establishing multivariate rules of the distribution of burden ofproof; attaching importance to preservation and application of the evidence in network virtualproperty disputes.