Research On The Identification Of E-mail Evidence In The Civil Procedure

In the 2012 revision of<Civil Procedural Law of the People's Republic of China>(hereinafter referred to as '<The Civil Procedure Law>')officially stipulated 'Electronic Data' as one of the types of legal evidence,and Electronic Data has obtained legal status in the civil procedure.The<Interpretations of the Supreme People's Court on Application of the Civil Procedural Law of the People' s Republic of China>(hereinafter referred to as'<the Interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law>')promulgated by the Supreme People's Court in February 2015 provided in article 116,paragraph 2:'Electronic data shall mean information formed or stored on electronic media such as email,electronic data exchange,online chat records,blog,mini-blog,mobile phone short messages,electronic signature and domain name'.E-mail evidence is clearly identified as a type of electronic data evidence.However,because electronic evidence distinguishes itself greatly from traditional ones which has the character of dependence,fragility and technical exclusivity,there are still many problems to be discussed and clarified when confirming the effect of e-mail evidence in practice.This paper analyzes and discusses the identification of e-mail evidence in the civil procedure from the characteristics of e-mail evidence and the difficult problems existing in the identification of e-mail evidence in judicial practice in China,so as to provide some reference opinions for perfecting the identification rules of e-mail evidence in China.