The Exceptions And Regulations Of Near-relatives Witnesses’ Immunity To Testify

Studies about the near-relatives witnesses’ immunity to testify began to be appreciated again since the late 1990 s. After several years of silence, the near relatives’ privilege started to be discussed of many China’s scholars again. In many disputes, indeed, there are some scholars believe that there is no necessary correlation between this system and justice, even harming the justice. While most academics have a positive attitude to near relatives’ immunity to testify, and appeal to the government to introduce this system. After The new Criminal Procedural Law of People’s Republic of China was issued in 2012, the near relatives’ immunity to testify has been explicitly stated in the Article 188. The status of academic research are mostly focus on the near relatives’ immunity to testify, rather than its exceptions. Most of the master and doctoral dissertations tend to focus on the historical origin, value, system design etc. That is to say, although there are many scholars discuss this issue, but in fact, it is rare to see the exceptions, the mutatis mutandis of different situations,and the details of this brand-new rule. Also,it is rare to be established systematically.The near-relatives witnesses’ immunity to testify has been introduced into criminal procedural law in China, which is a very significant move. The advantages and the necessity of this rule have been widely approved, therefore that would not be covered again here. This article will focuses on the disadvantages of current rule, the exceptions and more accommodating approaches. It cannot be denied that there are many problems in practice because this is a brand-new regulation. Researches are still lacking the detailed design after the law has been changed.There are many research methods are applied in this article, such as literature retrieval, analysis and comparison method, case-analyzing method etc. Through literature search methods, massive amounts of resources were obtained, for instance, the historical evolution and other background information of thenear-relatives witnesses’ immunity to testify. In addition, through comparative analysis method, the theoretical basis for studying the exceptions of the immunity to testify was established. To sum up, the focus of this article is the exceptional circumstances and regulations. Moreover, some suggestions about how to stipulate the exceptions will be discussed in this article.In the chapter one, the definition of near relatives’ immunity to testify and its exceptions will be described. Within the range of current regulations, the scope of this rights’ subject and the basic legal principles will be discussed as well. Then this chapter further illustrates the near relatives’ immunity to testify in practice. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of this right will be discussed. The necessity and feasibility of the exceptions is another important part of this chapter. In the chapter two, comparing the different regulations and exceptions between civil law system and common law system by using the comparative research method, also, this part will focus on the regulations of exceptions. The most significant chapter in this article is chapter three which will discuss how to improve the exception regulations. There are two main section in this chapter which are fundamental conditions and other security methods. The chapter details the scope of subjects and the scope of cases of near relatives’ immunity to testify.