Research On The Retrieval Mechanism Of Similar Criminal Case

With the construction of the judicial open platform on the China Judicial Documents Network,more and more adjudication documents are being made public online,and the phenomenon of inconsistent application of law is becoming more and more exposed,causing a crisis of judicial trust.In order to deepen the comprehensive reform of the judicial accountability system,unify the application of law and promote judicial justice,the Supreme People’s Court issued the "Guidance on Uniform Application of Law and Strengthening the Searching of Class Cases(for Trial Implementation)"(Fafa [2020] No.24),which makes clear provisions on the specific application of the class case search mechanism.However,there are a number of problems in the institutional design as well as in the practical operation of the class case search mechanism,and its practical application has not been satisfactory.The reasons for the unsatisfactory operation of the class search mechanism require in-depth analysis at both the practical and institutional levels of the mechanism before practical suggestions can be made for its improvement.The paper is divided into four chapters,the main contents of which are as follows.Chapter 1 is an overview of the system of the class case search mechanism.This part mainly includes an overview of the concepts related to the class case search mechanism,the background of the mechanism and the objectives pursued in constructing the mechanism,in order to set the stage for the following application of the current situation and the problems raised.Chapter 2 focuses on the current situation and dilemmas in the operation of the class search mechanism.This part focuses on the current situation of the application of class cases,and analyses the problems of the class case retrieval mechanism,including:judges do not refer to or implicitly cite class cases such as guidance cases when they retrieve them;the class case retrieval mechanism relying on judicial big data suffers from insufficient data disclosure and inaccurate retrieval results.The third chapter analyses the main reasons for the unsatisfactory operation of the class case search mechanism.From a theoretical perspective,the reasons for the ineffective application of class cases include the lack of clarity in the "shouldreference" effect of guiding cases and the lack of unified standards for the application of class case identification techniques,which affects judges’ enthusiasm in applying class cases;from a practical perspective,it is because the retrieval technology is backward and the knowledge map construction technology is not yet able to finely classify and mark complex cases.The problem of inaccurate search results is caused by the fact that the knowledge graph construction technology is not yet able to finely classify and mark cases with complex circumstances.Chapter 4 focuses on the rational optimisation of the search mechanism for similar cases.Firstly,it is necessary to clarify the legitimacy of the differences in adjudication within a reasonable range of criminal cases,and to exempt judges from the responsibility of adjudication within this range;secondly,at the theoretical level,it is necessary to clarify the factual binding effect of "should refer to" guiding cases,and to construct a specific method for identifying class cases;furthermore,the construction of the class case retrieval mechanism is aimed at improving the efficiency of litigation and reducing the pressure on judges.Lastly,drawing on the precedent-setting system of case law countries,it emphasises the pattern of division of labour among multiple litigants in the specific application of the class case retrieval mechanism.The judge will respond and argue in detail in the judgment,forming a multi-party communication pattern of "prosecution-defence-trial" in the case search activity,which can reduce the burden of the judge’s case search on the one hand and facilitate the trial process on the other.