Research On Case Retrieval Mechanism In China

The Supreme People’s Court has constructed the case retrieval mechanism with the goal of “unifying the application of law and enhancing the credibility of the judiciary”.This mechanism requires courts at all levels to search similar cases based on the similar case retrieval platform when dealing with specific cases,and make judgments by referring to similar cases on the basis of comparative analysis.However,the information technology on which the similar case retrieval mechanism relies is in the ascendant,and the mechanism itself is also insufficient.There are also conceptual obstacles between the tradition of Chinese statute law and the retrieval mechanism of similar cases.The actual application effect of the case retrieval mechanism is not ideal.In the long run,the expected function of the mechanism will be difficult to achieve.Therefore,it is necessary to study the retrieval mechanism of similar cases based on China’s national conditions,legislation and judicial status,deeply analyze the reasons why this mechanism fails to thrive in the soil of China’s legal system,and put forward practical suggestions for improvement.In addition to the conclusion,this thesis is divided into five parts.The first part,introduction.In order to promote judicial justice,the Supreme People’s Court in 2017 put forward the “similar case retrieval” request.At present,the academic circles hold three attitudes towards the development of case retrieval mechanism.The first attitude is full support.The second attitude is to support but need to be improved.The third attitude is that the mechanism has a negative impact and should be treated with caution.On the whole,the existing research results focus on exploring the ought-to-be global trend and the top-level design of the mechanism in terms of research ideas,and there are few studies on the related issues of judge responsibility.In research methods,empirical analysis of case retrieval mechanism is relatively less literature.This is not conducive to the improvement and implementation of the mechanism.The second part,the establishment and practice of case retrieval mechanism.Case retrieval mechanism is an important mechanism formed in the reform of the judicial system.On the one hand,due to the abstraction of the formulation law and its judicial interpretation,the universality of the phenomenon of“different judgments in the similar cases” and the lack of supply of guiding cases,it is necessary to have a case retrieval mechanism.On the other hand,the case retrieval mechanism has three expected values: regulating the discretion of judges,enhancing the credibility of the judiciary and weakening the administrative color of the trial process.Therefore,the mechanism should also be further developed.By issuing a series of normative documents,the Supreme People’s Court has made more detailed provisions on the case retrieval mechanism.Although the mechanism helps to improve the quality of case handling,the practical application effect is not ideal.The third part,the dilemma of case retrieval mechanism.There are three major problems in the application of the case retrieval mechanism: inaccurate retrieval results(“source” problem),indirect citation as the “hidden rule” of judicial application cases(“application” problem),and insufficient guarantee for judges(“guarantee” problem).These three problems not only increase the risk of judges ’ occupation,but also have a serious impact on the unity of judicial efficiency and judgment scale in China.These issues should therefore be given adequate attention.The fourth part,the reasons for the plight of case retrieval mechanism.The cause analysis of the problem should be carried out from two aspects of theory and practice.The reason for the “source” problem is that the mechanism lacks the guarantee of judicial efficiency in design and the retrieval technology relies too much on manual work.Reasons for the “application”problem: the mechanism lacks authority and judges are unfamiliar with the method of case identification.Reasons for the “guarantee” problem: the mechanism not only lacks the guarantee of judicial substantive justice,but also lacks the guarantee and incentive for judges.The fifth part,countermeasures to improve the case retrieval mechanism in China.In the process of perfecting the case retrieval mechanism,we should always guarantee the dominant position of judges in judicial trials and highlight the judicial auxiliary function of the case retrieval mechanism.This paper summarizes three suggestions.First of all,the problem of information technology can not be completely solved temporarily.To alleviate the “source”problem,we should improve the mechanism to enhance the active adaptability of the subject to the technology short board.Second,in order to improve the“application” issue,we should strengthen the authority of the mechanism itself and clarify the specific methods of citation cases.Third,it is helpful to solve the problem of “guarantee” and promote the realization of judicial justice by clarifying the incentive and guarantee mechanism of judges.