The Research On The Privilege Of Criminal Witnesses To Refuse Testimony In China

The privilege of criminal witnesses to refuse testimony is an important part of the evidence system,which provides a strong institutional support for witnesses to resist their obligation to testify in accordance with legal requirements.Although China does not have specific legal provisions on the privilege of criminal witnesses to refuse testimony,the system can also be seen sporadically in various departmental laws such as the Criminal Procedure Law.In particular,after the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Law in 2012,the mandatory witness appearance rule excluded parents,spouses,and children’s testimony obligations,which opened a breakthrough for the improvement of relative witnesses’ right of refusal to testify,and then promoted the process of perfecting the system of the privilege of criminal witnesses to refuse testimony in China.In order to establish a system of the privilege of criminal witnesses to refuse testimony with Chinese characteristics,we must first have a comprehensive understanding of the background and consensus content of the system: by analyzing the premise of the witness’ s obligation to testify and the nature of the privilege to refuse testimony,the system’s position in the law of evidence can be quickly found;by exploring the litigation and legal basis of the system and its impact on social relations,we can see the role of social change in establishing and establishing methods for criminal witnesses to refuse testimony;through horizontal and vertical comparison,we can understand the legislative model of the Western rule of law in the developed countries on the privilege to refuse testimony,relative witnesses,professional witnesses,and public interest,and the historical heritage and development process of the ancient relative concealment system in China,in order to seek the useful experience of the privilege of criminal witnesses to refuse testimony to take root in China.In addition,the legal norm analysis method can effectively find out the sparseness of China’s current legislative system regarding the privilege of criminal witnesses to refuse testimony,combining the method of legal empirical analysis to study the proportion of relative witnesses in China’s criminal cases and whether the sentence is suspended,they can conclude that in China’s judicial practice,criminal witnesses are prone to prosecution and lack of remedies due to lack of the privilege to refuse testimony,which may improve the privilege of criminal witnesses to refuse testimony in China from the perspective of legalinterpretation and legislative suggestions with related supporting procedures.