On The Criminal Corroboration Requirement

As one of the main ways to solve the problem of weight of proof,the criminal corroboration requirement aims to eliminate the risk of insufficient probative force of single evidence by means of corroborating around the substantiation of case facts.Since the development of China’s criminal corroboration requirement has been closely related to the torture system,the current academic research on the criminal corroboration requirement is more focused on the confession corroboration requirement,despite the emergence of useful exploration of other evidence corroboration issues such as victim statements and minors’ testimony.It’s difficult to accurately and comprehensively reveal the spirit of the criminal corroboration requirement,and it’s also impossible to conduct an in-depth and comprehensively study of the criminal corroboration requirement by focusing on the confession corroboration requirement,which is typically of a priori insufficient proof.Therefore,based on the systematic construction and improvement of the criminal corroboration requirement,it’s of great theoretical value and practical significance to explore the theoretical basis of the criminal corroboration requirement,clarifying the problems of criminal corroboration requirement in Chinese regulations and practice,and conducting in-depth and systematic research on the criminal corroboration requirement.In addition to the introduction,this paper is divided into five chapters,the main contents are as follows:The first chapter is the basic theory of criminal corroboration requirement.The basic theory of criminal corroboration requirement mainly includes four aspects: definition of connotation,discrimination of relevant concepts,function of criminal corroboration requirement and its historical tracing.From the point of definition,The corroboration requirement means that in order to obtain the sufficiency of proof of factum probandum,the evidence with insufficient probative force can work in connect with other independent evidence that points the same factum probandum.Its complete connotation includes two aspects: meaning of procedural law and meaning of evidence law.From the perspective of relevant concepts,the differences between the rule and the rule of a verdict can’t be based on solitary evidence is mainly in the legislative purpose and the way of application;the differences between the rule and the criminal verification rule mainly lies in the application objects,application method and the relationship with proof standards;the difference between the rule and the rules for correcting defective evidence lies mainly in the applicable objects,the applicable method and the applicable result.From the point of view of rule function,its function can be understood from the three dimensions of preventing wrongful conviction of innocent people,reasonably restricting judges’ free evaluation of evidence and the objective standard of supplementary criminal evidence.From the perspective of historical origin,the rule of criminal corroboration requirement emerged in the early stage of the system of divine evidence.With the different ways of judicial power distribution in the 13 th century,the criminal corroboration requirement took two completely different paths in two law systems.In China,it originated from the protection of special groups,and is closely related to the torture system.Although the relevant norms are constantly enriched,a complete and unified rule of evidence has not yet been formed.The second chapter is the structural analysis of criminal corroboration requirement.The criminal corroboration requirement is mainly applicable to the factum probandum that have been temporarily suspended due to the sufficiency of proof,and its scope will show some differences due to the different litigation stage and procedure selection or the different sources of the case.On this basis,the primary evidence refers to the legal evidence that the facts to be proved are temporarily suspended due to insufficient proof strength,and its scope is mainly limited by the applicable method.Corroborative evidence refers to the legal evidence that the facts proved by the primary evidence are temporarily set aside due to insufficient proof strength,and its scope is mainly limited by the minimum probative force and independence.The degree of corroboration includes the differentiated requirements of procedure and the factum probandum.Procedural difference means that although the legislation sets the same standard for the facts to be proved at different stages of litigation,there will be substantial differences in this standard due to the different functional tendency and the degree of cross-examination of the defense.Its essence is that the pre-trial stage is a reasonable expectation that the evidence review result is enough to make the judge find the defendant guilty,and the trial stage is a minimum grasp of the evidence review result after absorbing the defense cross-examination.The difference of the facts to be proved refers to the different requirements for reinforcing the facts according to the different nature of the facts of the case.In accordance with the general standards of fact identification,persuasive facts should be proved to the extent beyond reasonable doubt,while shaking facts should be only proved to the extent that can cause reasonable doubt generally.The third chapter is type analysis the of criminal corroboration requirement.According to the different types of primary evidence,the criminal corroboration requirement can be divided into five types: confession corroboration requirement,accomplice confession corroboration requirement,solitary evidence corroboration requirement and weak evidence corroboration requirement.The value of confession corroboration requirement is to To guarantee the authenticity of the defendant’s confession,mainly applicable to the all statements that can deduce defendant guilty,and the corroborative evidences includes the evidence that can directly prove the case facts,the covert evidences which must be found,and the accomplice confessions that corroborated by other evidences.The value of accomplice confession corroboration requirement is to ensure that has nothing to do is not affected,mainly applicable to the accomplice confession which is contradiction with the defendant confession on form or content,its corroborative evidence is limited to which is point the part of the defendant involved into sin.The value of solitary evidence corroboration requirement is eliminate the apply effect of the rule of a verdict can’t be based on solitary evidence,mainly applicable to the evidences that can influence conviction and sentencing by the facts and the facts are against the defendant,the corroborative evidences only can point to intermediate facts that can deduce the facts proved by solitary evidences.The value of weak evidences corroboration requirement is to eliminate the apply effect of the predictive intervention for weak evidences,mainly applicable to the evidences,whose probative force is congenitally deficient caused by its nature or its connection with the case,that can influence conviction and sentencing by the facts,the corroborative evidence is limited to its can point to the hard core of the facts that proved by weak evidences,directly or indirectly.to the card to the case facts by the core elements of the evidence.The fourth chapter is the empirical survey of criminal corroboration requirement.From the legislative point of view,the criminal corroboration requirement has been widely used in judicial interpretation and local laws and regulations since 1997,but more often it is implied in the criminal verification rule.On the one hand,it solves both the problem of evidence input and the problem of evidence output,and its rule attribute is not clear.On the other hand,the limitations on the selection of primary evidence and corroborative evidence are not clear,and their applicable effects are diversified.At the same time,the requirements of the criminal corroboration requirement in the existing norms mainly have two problems in terms of scattered legal sources and low level of effectiveness,and confusing content and low operability.From the practical point of view,the application of criminal corroboration requirement is limited from 2010 to 2019,mainly appearing in the crime of disrupting the social management order and the crime of property infringement.It is mainly applicable to the basic facts,main facts and procedural facts of criminal cases.The primary evidence is mainly the defendant’s confession,weak evidence,defective evidence and solitary evidence.The corroborative evidence is mainly the witness’ s testimony,documentary evidence and situation explanation.At the same time,the application of criminal corroboration requirement in the sample cases mainly presents three problems: the application form is transformed into the whole case evidences,the application method is replaced by the rule for correcting the defective evidence,and the application result compresses the application scope of the rule of a verdict can’t be based on solitary evidence.The fifth chapter is the perfect speculation of criminal corroboration requirement.In the process of perfecting the criminal corroboration requirement,it is necessary to gradually realize the systematic construction of external value and internal logic by taking the goal as the guide,taking the principle as the program and taking the systematism as the path.In terms of the goal of perfection,take the systematic construction of criminal evidence rules as the basic goal,take the systematic construction of criminal evidence rules as the ultimate goal,and take the direct goal of ensuring the accuracy of the fact determination of a single case.From the perspective of perfection principle,take no-damaging of the judges’ free evaluation of evidence as the basic principle,take the enhancing the operability of criminal corroboration requirement as the basic premise,and take the coordinating with the system of criminal evidence rules the basic guarantee.From the perspective of perfecting methods,we can use three technical methods to perfect the criminal corroboration requirement,namely normative integration,the total-fraction construction of “one vertical and many horizontal” and the appropriate reference to experience outside the region.As far as the general requirements of criminal corroboration requirement are concerned,on the basis of clarifying the relationship between the new evidence,secondary evidence,supplementary evidence,corroborative evidence and narrative evidence,it is necessary to delimit the scope of the factum probandum and the requirements of the degree of corroboration.The criminal corroboration requirement mainly apply to nine types of evidence with doubtful probative force.While clarifying the three characteristics of corroborative evidence,five types of evidence,including hearsay evidence,covert evidence and accomplice confession,are prohibited to be used as corroborative evidence.In terms of the special needs of different subtypes of corroboration requirement,they are mainly embodied in the special cases and exceptions of the five kinds of corroboration requirement in limiting the scope of primary evidence and corroborative evidence.