Witness System Analysis Under The New"Interpretation Of The Civil Procedure Law"

In China’s civil proceedings, witnesses are often reluctant to testify for a variety of considerations, and the judge pays no attention to the testimony by the witness in court, which lead to more people unwilling to appear in court as witnesses in judicial practice as well as the rampancy of written testimony. Aimed at this phenomenon, the Supreme Court in 2015 has introduced a new "interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law,” which revises and perfects the system of the witness testimony in court. Witness testimony is the obligation prescribed in Civil Procedure Law to every citizen, which deserves everyone to actively fulfill. In Civil Proceedings,the witness is not so active for many reasons. For example, by the impact of traditional Chinese culture, people generally have a natural aversion to serving as witness at court. What’s more, it is also related to the incomplete witness compensation mechanism and the low feasibility of witness protection system. This paper will analyze the Witness System mainly from four parts:The first part will describe the definition of the concept of witnesses in Civil Procedural Law,witnesses qualification as well as the positive significance of witnesses.The second part will introduce a breakthrough of the "Civil Law explained" in terms of witnesses to testify, which includes the way of testifying as units, signature of the paper of guarantees, the criteria of economic compensate, the way of payment, attesting procedure and other aspects of the program.The third part will explain the problems of the system of the witness’ testimony their causes.The most prominent problems of Witness System are the blank of the judicial legislation and the phenomena that witnesses are afraid of or not willing of testimony and some witnesses even make perjury. The main cause of these two issues is that the traditional sense of “disgust litigation” leads Chinese people being tired of complaints. In addition, the lack of the system of witness compulsorily appearing in court, the effective mechanism of protecting witness and punishment of the acts of the perjury are also the reasons that cannot be neglected. Learning the advanced experiences of legislation from abroad and combining with China’s status.The fourth part will put forward some suggestions aimed at the current system of witnessappearing in court. Firstly, integrate the witness protection mechanism in administrative proceedings, criminal procedure, and civil procedure, to establish a unified system of witness protection on the rights of witness. Secondly, establish a special department inside the people’s court, dealing with the application of witness protection and the implementation of all the concrete measure. Last but not least, as for the acts of perjury in a civil action, the judges should be given the right of discretion so that the judge can provide legal penalty in accordance with the case of perjury and the extent of injury. Furthermore, the behavior of refusing to testify or giving false testimony will be loaded in citizens’ credit files, and establish a witness protection system to excuse performance of the obligations of witness under special circumstances as soon as possible.In conclusion, witnesses testify has great significance to the achievement of justice, and it is necessarily to conduct in-depth research on this issue so that Witness System can play its due role in the society.