An Empirical Analysis On The Examination And Determination Of Appraisal Opinions

Appraisal opinion was called "appraisal conclusion" before the revision of Criminal Procedure Law in 2012,which is often used without discrimination in criminal trial practice,leading to the situation that only "appraisal opinion" is followed.Appraisal opinion is one of the key evidence to prove the case facts,and it is of great significance to the determination of case facts.And its incorrect identification will easily lead to wrongful conviction.In 2012,"appraisal conclusion" was changed into "appraisal opinion" in the Criminal Procedure Law,which is an important development of our judicial appraisal system,and a significant progress in our criminal litigation system as well,and puts forward a new requirement on the review and appraisal opinion of criminal judgment standard.From the practical point of criminal adjudication,this thesis aims at: 1.combing the review and identification of legal regulations concerning appraisal opinions from the aspects of form review,substance review and adversarial review;2.screening 100 controversial judgment documents in the review and identification of appraisal opinions from the network of Chinese judgment documents and the trial practice,summarizing and analyzing the document samples from different angles,and discussing the main problems in the review and identification of appraisal opinions in criminal trial practice by combining with their own trial practice;3.putting forward practical solutions to the problem as far as possible,putting forward suggestions at the standard level,and putting forward more reasonable appraisal standards in theory,which are the main problems to be solved in this thesis.The main problems of form review in the present situation of the examination and identification of appraisal opinions in judicial practice are as follows: the examination of the qualification of appraisers and appraisal institutions is mere formality,and the avoidance of examination has no practical significance;in the completeness of form review of appraisal opinions,it is worth discussing whether taking the lack of signature and seal into the absolute exclusion scope;in the definiteness of the appraisal opinion examination,the judge could not accurately understand some expressions involving professional knowledge in the appraisal opinions;and the narrow scope of appraisal opinion is not conducive to the protection of the rights of the parties and the development of cross-examination.The main problems of substance review are as follows: the authenticity and reliability of material inspection are insufficient;the review of the process and method stays on the surface,the substantive review is insufficient,and lack of argumentation;there are many confusing criteria for the acceptance of appraisal opinions;and the situation of re-appraisal and multi-appraisal is outstanding.The main problems of adversarial review are as follows: forensic examiners’ cross-examination rate in court is low;and people with expertise are less likely to give their opinions in court.In the author’s opinion,we can learn from the beneficial exploration and experiences at home and abroad and improve the above-mentioned situation from the following aspects: in the identification process improvement,first,for the identification initiation procedure,the parties can be allowed to participate on the premise of not hindering the investigation;second,for the re-appraisal and supplementary appraisal procedure,the provisions with universal value can be improved from the legislation;third,the informing procedure can expand the scope of the parties’ understanding of the appraisal opinions within the legal limits;in the aspect of the perfection of the trial cross-examination procedure,first,the necessary circumstances under which the appraiser and the person issuing the report appear in court for cross-examination may be specified by legislation;second,for system improvement of the expert’s appearance in court to give his opinions to the expert,we should pay attention to the expert’s qualification examination,and it is not only necessary to clarify the necessary situations of expert’s appearance in court to put forward opinions,but also necessary to clarify court-appearance procedure;third,a technical evidence review mechanism can be established within the trial system.In the substantive review of the inspection materials,processes and methods,the authenticity and reliability of material inspection should be comprehensively reviewed,the appraisal process and methods should be substantively reviewed to strengthen argumentation and reasoning,and in the aspect of perfecting the identification standard,the rationality standard and scientific standard are put forward.