Criminal judgment according to research

Author: Hu Zhifang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Accurately identifying case facts and selecting applicable laws are the foundation and prerequisite for the court to make correct judgments, the key to the defendant's acceptance of the judgment, and an important guarantee for achieving judicial fairness. However, for a long time, criminal trial activities in China have been regarded as the confirmation of investigative and prosecutorial achievements rather than the center of the lawsuit. Correspondingly, there has been insufficient attention paid to the activities of fact-finding and legal application in criminal judgment activities, and the legal theory community has also lacked in-depth research on this issue. There are still no monographs that systematically and deeply study both facts and laws from the perspective of the basis of criminal judgments. Based on this judicial and theoretical research status, my Ph.D. student Hu Zhifang chose this topic as her doctoral dissertation topic and completed the doctoral dissertation "Research on the Basis of Criminal Judgments." This topic has significant theoretical and practical value. Building on relevant research achievements, the author conducts an in-depth analysis of the concept, attributes, and composition of the basis of criminal judgments from a static perspective. At the same time, breaking through existing research horizons, the author organically integrates knowledge from criminal procedure law, evidence law, criminal law, and legal interpretation theory into the framework of this research topic, conducting a dynamic study from the perspective of how to recognize case facts, select applicable laws, and construct a scientific basis for criminal judgments. This research approach itself demonstrates the author's broad research vision, which helps to enrich the theory of criminal judgments and provides practical guidance for judges to scientifically determine the basis of criminal judgments.
The book "Research on the Basis of Criminal Judgments" focuses on several aspects, including the meaning, composition, general theoretical issues of confirming the basis of criminal judgments, and the methods and rules for confirming the basis of criminal judgments, conducting in-depth and beneficial explorations. The author has proposed personal insights on many issues. For example, the author first proposes a definition of the basis of criminal judgments, clarifies the relationship between the basis of criminal judgments, the reasons for criminal judgments, and the factors affecting criminal judgments, and discusses the attributes and functions of the basis of criminal judgments. The author defines the connotation of criminal judgment facts, pointing out that criminal judgment facts are both legal facts and propositional facts, with distinctions between truth and falsehood. However, the convergence between judgment facts and objective facts remains one of the goals that criminal judgments strive to achieve, although this convergence relationship is only relative. The author first explains the legal basis of criminal judgments, taking China's criminal legal system as the research object and interpreting the legal basis of criminal judgments from the two levels of criminal basic laws and criminal legal interpretations. How to identify case facts and select applicable laws is an important content of the research on the basis of criminal judgments. The author attempts to explore the general theoretical issues of the confirmation activities of the basis of criminal judgments in the book, pointing out that the process of confirming the basis of criminal judgments should follow the principle of rationality, specifically including three aspects: conformity to laws, conformity to purposes, and conformity to norms. The author also discusses the issue of the determination of the basis of criminal judgments, pointing out that certainty and uncertainty are dialectically unified, and advocates the rational construction of a "dialogue" process for confirming facts and laws in this specific institutional context of criminal judgments to achieve relative certainty of the basis of criminal judgments. The confirmation of the basis of criminal judgments includes both the confirmation of factual grounds and the confirmation of legal grounds. The author distinguishes between the two, pointing out that the confirmation of factual grounds for criminal judgments is a cognitive activity of past case facts as an unknown object, while the confirmation of legal grounds for criminal judgments is an activity of selecting and interpreting legal texts under the premise of the objective existence of legal norms. Regarding the specific confirmation rules and methods of the basis of criminal judgments, the author primarily discusses the confirmation rules and methods of judgment facts from the aspects of using evidence to identify facts and the confirmation of facts without evidence. At the same time, the author first explores the confirmation rules and methods of the legal basis of criminal judgments from the aspects of legal selection and judicial application and interpretation. These researches undoubtedly demonstrate the author's solid professional foundation and active academic thinking.
Of course, there are also shortcomings in the book, such as a lack of corresponding consideration on the issue of precedents, and further in-depth research is needed on the relationship between the basis of criminal judgments and criminal judicial fairness, as well as the standardization of factors affecting criminal judgments. But the blemish does not obscure the overall quality. On the whole, the book has a complete structure, rich materials, in-depth and extensive discussions, unique insights, sufficient arguments, correct viewpoints, and fluent writing, making it a work of high academic value. It is believed that this achievement will have a positive impact on further enriching and expanding China's criminal procedure theory and can provide theoretical references for criminal judicial practice.
The author of this book, Hu Zhifang, pursued her Ph.D. degree under my guidance from 2002 to 2005. During her studies, she participated in several research projects I led, demonstrating good scientific research qualities and abilities. During the doctoral dissertation defense process, her doctoral dissertation received unanimous praise from the defense committee and passed with full marks. As her supervisor, I am deeply gratified, and I am delighted to write the preface upon the publication of her doctoral dissertation and sincerely wish her even greater achievements in future teaching and research work!
(Note: The original text contains repeated sections. The translation provided above is a consolidated version, ensuring all Chinese content is translated into English while maintaining the original structure and meaning.)