Study On The System Of Witness Guarantee In Civil Action In China

The witness guarantee system in our civil lawsuit system shows the establishment of honest witness system which displays Chinese characteristics. Although it has a short history and it is imperfect in practice, compared to that in other legal states, it does really mean something when it comes to the honesty of the witness. This article will make some research on the the witness guarantee system from four aspects as follows:The first part will talk about the legal basis and practical significance of the witness guarantee system. In the part of legal basis,the need of protection of private rights,principle of good faith and witness real obligation will be discussed. In the section of practical significance, the enhancement of the witness’ authenticity of testimony and the establishment of our the witness honesty system.The second part is related to the current situation of judicial practice on the witness guarantee system. This part is based on the author’s materials coming from interviews with about 30 judges in about 20 provinces and 9 guarantee texts from 8 provinces. These materials and texts make a real and intuitive impact on the practice condition of the witness guarantee system in courts in most of the provinces of China. Firstly, regional practice research of the witness guarantee system will be discussed. In addition, the judicial practice of signing process will be talked about. At last, the content of the witness guarantee will be studied. Generally speaking, different courts in different provinces make difference in all three parts.The third part is connected with the current problems of the witness guarantee system in our civil lawsuit system. It can be concluded in four aspects as follows:to begin with, it is unreasonable that the judicial interpretation of our civil procedure law establishs the witness guarantee system, not only from the status of the judicial interpretation but from legal effect of it as well. Secondly, this article will show the irrationality that the witness fails to sigh the the guarantee from the prohibitive provisions and the practice operation. Besides, the judicial interpretation of our civil procedure law can’t deal with the problems in practice, which can be shown in signing subject, nature and real operation. In the end, it will discuss the problem of defining fees when the witness refuses to sign the guarantee.The last part proposes the solutions to the problems happening in the the witness guarantee system. Firstly,the witness guarantee system should be based on the civil procedure law; Secondly, the effect of evidence must be denied if the witness doesn’t sign the guarantee. Thirdly, it is important to confront the chaos in the practice from the improvement of the subject, content and procedure. At last, the fee should be defined in detail.