The Reform Of Civil Judgments From The View Of Theory Of Ultimate Facts

A civil judgment finally confirms the rights and the obligations between the parties andreflects the process of civil litigation procedure. Whether a civil verdict is objective and logical,not only relates to the quality of judges handling the case, the level of law enforcement anddeciding case, but also affects the practice of social concept of law—“justice for people”. As tothe reform of civil judgments, the exploration of our judicial sector of theory and practice hasalready lasted for many years. The Supreme Court announced the court proceedings for trial ininstrument style. The reform of civil judgments is identified as one of the key issues of judicialreform by the Supreme Court in2000. The reform focused on the verdict reasoning system. Thesample of the litigation document format for courts was published in2009. The announcementof two styles playas an important role in specifying the writing standard of the courtproceedings and unifying litigation documents. Also some problems are found in the process ofapplication. Many civil judgments are cumbersome and voluminous for people with lowereducational level and legal awareness, especially for farmers. Parties tend to be dubious aboutthe verdict, let alone convinced. The paper first defines the definition and function of ultimatefacts, and then analyzes the current situation of China’s civil verdict, finding out the problemsin current civil judgments. According to the civil judgments reform in1990s in China and Japan,the paper compares formats of civil judgments before and after the reform. We hope to absorbthe advantages if suitable for China’s national condition and to provide a new direction forChina’s reform.The paper is divided into four parts to the problem of the changes of civil judgmentsformat.The first part is the theory of ultimate facts and the reform of civil judgments in Japan.Ultimate facts correspond facts required by provisions of substantive law. It includes facts,contradict facts and facts etc. into attack and defense system. Theory of ultimate facts plays animportant role in smoothing the conduct of civil litigation. Japan courts started the reform ofcivil judgments based on the theory of ultimate facts. Compared to the pre-reform civiljudgments, the new civil judgments eliminate some of the duplication of fact, and make thepoint of dispute outstanding, which makes the parties easy to obtain the information.The second part is about the current situation and the need for reforming the civil judgments. They are the seasoning part, the fact part and the format part. It lays the foundationfor the contents in the following. It concludes that there are still a few problems existing incurrent judicial practice and these issues should be given high priority. A articulate logical civiljudgment is conducive to the purpose of closing a case. It is good to maintenance the image ofthe people’s court and to establish the authority of the national laws.The third part is the empirical analysis of the after-reform civil judgments of Japan. Theway to ascertain the facts in China does not follow the logical sequence, so it can not determinethe center point of the case, leading to the confusion of the findings of fact and evidence.“Thesamples of litigation document formats” published in2009, basically kept the format and styleof “92style of civil judgment”. We can say that there was no substantive change in the formatof verdict from1992to2009. This part takes an unjust enrichment case as an example. Twojudgments are made in accordance with the requirements of “samples of litigation documentformats” in2009and the new formats after the reform in Japan. New style of written verdict ofJapanese civil judgments is shorter but still able to achieve the goals of being concise and clearand easy to read. It is worth as a reference paradigm.The fourth part is conclusion part. Try starting form the legal education, and value thetheory of ultimate facts. Compare the theory and the practice,and do some relative practicaltraining to find a good way suiting Chinese situations.