| Character evidence is an important concept in evidence law,and most countries have gradually formed exclusionary rules for character evidence.The core reason for its exclusion is that evidence about a person’s character cannot be used to prove that the person engaged in acts consistent with his or her character on a specific occasion.There is a certain consensus on this exclusionary principle in the academic and practical circles.But as the French proverb goes,"All rules have exceptions,and exceptions also express principles.".Data analysis shows that in recent years,the number of cases related to the application of character evidence in practice has increased,while at the same time,there have been issues of disorderly application and unclear admissibility of character evidence.The blind application of evidence relevance rules to exclude character evidence is one of the main reasons for the nonstandard application of character evidence in judicial practice.The article sets out to study the limited admissibility of character evidence in the field of civil litigation,and explores the limited application of character evidence by sorting out judicial decisions related to character evidence in practice.This article is divided into five chapters:The first chapter introduces the basic theory of character evidence,defines "character" from the perspective of evidence law to distinguish the concept of "character" in daily life,and further elaborates the characteristics of character and the meaning of character evidence.Analyze the exclusionary rules of character evidence.The second chapter introduces two typical civil cases to illustrate that in judicial practice,in addition to following the general rules of exclusivity,character evidence has emerged as a method of adopting character evidence.Character evidence plays a role of proof,helping judges identify the facts of the case,and providing important case support for the author’s research on the limited admissibility of character evidence.Based on the practice of our country,the third chapter combs out the current legislative provisions,starting from the different attitudes of judges and parties to character evidence at the legislative level and in practice,and reveals the problems of the application of arbitrariness,the elimination of blindness,and the broadening of the content of party evidence in judicial practice.The fourth chapter analyzes the reasons for the problems in the practical application of character evidence,and discusses them from two aspects: internal reasons and external reasons.The former originates from the biased influence implied by character itself,the complexity of identifying specific behavioral evidence,and the invisibility of judges’ free evaluation.The latter originates from the unclear consideration of character application and the hesitancy of admissibility application.Chapter 5 discusses the application of limited admissibility of character evidence based on the principle of upholding the exclusionary rule of character evidence in civil litigation.It is acceptable to use evidence of a person’s "external behavior" to prove that the person has relevant motives,intentions,plans,or identities;When the character evidence of a party becomes the focus of dispute in a case,it is admissible;The reputation and opinions of witnesses regarding honesty or dishonesty are admissible when used to impeach the credibility of witnesses’ testimony.To study the limited admissibility of character evidence in the form of practical cases,And discusses the methods and standards of proof of character evidence. |
