Legal Evidence Cases and Academic Research

Author: Yu Jingyao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: With the increasing recognition that evidence is the soul of litigation, the establishment of a law on evidence has become widely anticipated. The Study of Litigation Evidence: Case Examples meticulously selects representative, novel, and challenging cases from recent years as subjects of study. Combining judicial practice, it analyzes and reflects on these cases using the latest legal provisions and authoritative legal theories. From the perspective of judicial precedents, it identifies and proposes practical issues, and, through comparative research and theoretical discussions on doctrines, legislation, and judicial practices from various countries, it provides interpretations or original insights on complex problems. While not exhaustive and without offering definitive conclusions, this book can be considered a comprehensive analysis of recent litigation evidence, containing certain creativity and inspiration, making it a valuable reference material for evidence legislation and judicial practice.
Evidence is the means and method of proving and determining case facts. Evidence law is a component of the judicial system. Since the late 1980s, China's court system has launched an extensive and vigorous reform of trial procedures. This far-reaching reform gradually unfolded by strengthening the burden of proof for parties. As evidence is the core of the litigation system, reforms touching this core immediately produced a "pulling one hair to move the whole body" effect, ultimately leading to a comprehensive reform of the trial system and even the entire judicial system. The task of the judiciary lies in maintaining and realizing social justice through the court's trials. Only by accurately ascertaining case facts can the law be correctly applied and just judgments rendered. For this reason, countries worldwide place great importance on the improvement of evidence systems. Common law countries often have specialized evidence laws, such as the Federal Rules of Evidence in the United States and the Civil Evidence Act in the United Kingdom. Civil law countries typically incorporate evidence systems within their civil procedure laws. Compared to foreign systems, China's civil procedure laws provide overly simplistic and mostly principle-based provisions on evidence, lacking practical applicability. This has left judges without clear guidelines when reviewing and evaluating evidence, resulting in inconsistent legal applications, undermining judicial fairness and authority. Practice has shown that reforming the evidence system is a long and arduous task. Its improvement depends not only on the establishment of a comprehensive set of evidence rules but also on the deepening of judicial system reforms, the transformation of litigation awareness across society, and the coordination and alignment of related legal systems.
This book is divided into three parts, each addressing litigation evidence from the perspectives of criminal, civil, and administrative procedures. It collects 29 real cases of litigation evidence from the past three years and conducts legal analysis and evaluation of contentious points. It serves as a university-level case reference textbook for law students to connect theory with practice, reflecting the latest judicial trends. It also aims to be a trusted guide and companion for legal enthusiasts.
The authors of this book are faculty members from the School of Law at Hangzhou Normal University, who are engaged in teaching, research, and judicial practice. They possess both theoretical and practical expertise and have published numerous achievements in national and provincial journals, winning multiple provincial and municipal research awards. The School of Law at Hangzhou Normal University has always been committed to China's judicial reform, emphasizing the integration of legal research with judicial practice. It aims to cultivate students' abilities to analyze and solve practical problems while enhancing their overall competence. For this purpose, the school frequently organizes students to conduct social surveys and immerse themselves in judicial practice, learning both the law from books (lawinbooks) and the law in action (lawinaction), while analyzing and evaluating the evidence they collect. The book presented here represents only a portion of the fruits of their mature considerations. Specifically, Part I on criminal evidence was completed by Yu Jingyao, Part II on civil evidence by Ke Dongying, and Part III on administrative evidence by Chen Chen. Despite significant efforts, the authors recognize that due to their limited knowledge and capabilities, shortcomings are inevitable. They sincerely welcome readers' criticisms and corrections. Additionally, the majority of the cases cited in this book are real cases that occurred after 2001, sourced from well-known websites, newspapers, and the Annals of the Supreme People's Court. For the sake of research and analysis, the names or locations of some cases have been appropriately altered.