法官分配证明责任:一个法学迷思概念的分析

我国司法实务及理论界多数学者普遍认为法官分配证明责任是对法定证明责任分配规则的补充,是事实认定陷入困境的疑难案件的证明责任分配规则.本文试图剖析这一误解的形成原因,并指出法官裁量分配证明责任在大陆法系证明责任一般分配理论中是没有存在地位的,我国民事证明责任分配应采取并实际上是采取了规范说,因此不宜赋予法官实质上分配证明责任的权力.实践中所谓法官分配证明责任的做法都是对这一概念的误用并可造成滥用自由裁量权的后果.应继续明确证明责任分配的法定规则,并通过强化当事人的证明权及在司法实践中逐渐形成与积累诉讼证明与事实认定的具体规则解决事实疑难案件的证明难题.     

浅议民事诉讼证明责任的分配

在民事诉讼中,证明责任是民事诉讼的核心,而证明责任的分配则是核心中的核心。证明责任的分配与当事人的程序利益和实体利益密切相关,其分配规则不仅需要一般规则,还需要特殊的补充规则,甚至需要法官的自由裁量。本文主要论述了证明责任分配的相关学说以及我国证明责任分配的原则,最后阐述了法官自由裁量权在民事诉讼证明责任分配中的适用。     

论消费欺诈诉讼案件证明难题的化解路径——以一个《最高人民法院公报》案例为样本的分析

消费欺诈诉讼案件中对欺诈事实的证明责任分配依规范说应由消费者承担,不应由法官裁量证明责任来改变法定的证明责任分配。法官自由裁量权应在证明评价与自由心证等环节加以运用。疑难案件的解决应坚持在严格遵循法定证明责任分配原则的基础上,通过司法实践生成诉讼证明的具体规则的路径来加以解决。     

事实认定中的法官自由裁量权

司法过程中的法官自由裁量权体现了司法能动性。在事实认定过程中,不论是证明责任的分配、证据能力的确定或是证明力的判断,都不可避免地带有法官自由裁量的成分,如何赋予法官在事实认定过程中一定的自由裁量空间以更好地发现真实又通过合理的检验机制以有效抑制法官自由裁量权的滥用。是我国立法与司法中面临的重要课题。     

论消费欺诈诉讼案件证明难题的化解路径——以一个《最高人民法院公报》案例为样本的分析

消费欺诈诉讼案件中对＂欺诈＂事实的证明责任分配依＂规范说＂应由消费者承担,不应由法官裁量证明责任来改变法定的证明责任分配。法官自由裁量权应在证明评价与自由心证等环节加以运用。疑难案件的解决应坚持在严格遵循法定证明责任分配原则的基础上,通过司法实践生成诉讼证明的具体规则的路径来加以解决。     

正视与反思:证明责任分配中自由裁量权的失范与规制

我国《民事诉讼法》第六十四条第一款明确了"谁主张,谁举证"的证明责任的一般原则,最高人民法院《关于民事诉讼证据的若干规定》第七条则赋予法官在无法律、司法解释的具体规定下,允许法官自由裁量证明责任的分配。由于立法之法无法穷尽纠纷的类型,赋予法官在符合一定条件下行使裁量权来分配案件的证明责任具有现实意义。但最高人民法院《关于民事诉讼证据的若干规定》第七条的规定过于原则,法官在行使自由裁量权分配证明责任时亦面临着挑战。基于此,本文试从证明责任分配中自由裁量权存在的合理性入手,结合典型案例,深入剖析自由裁量权失范的现象及成因,强化对规制法官在行使自由裁量权分配证明责任的制度考察,提出合理的制度构想。     

我国民事证明责任分配的理性重构——事实真伪不明时法官的抉择

证明责任的分配,实质上就是法律对客观证明责任的预先配置。综合考量实体与程序所追求的公平正义、诚实信用、权利保护等宏观价值观以及中国实践的土壤,和证明责任分配规则适用主体审判之法官的习惯操作流程之切合度,及法律职业群体的司法水平,德国学者罗森贝克的"规范说"应是目前我国确立证明责任分配规则标准的主要理论依据。同时考虑法官裁判的身份行为以及法的安定性和可预测性,证明责任分配规则适用时应禁止法官自由裁量权的行使。     

规范法官自由裁量权问题研究

法官的自由裁量是司法过程中经常发生的现象。但是,作为涉及到法官主观意志的活动,在法治社会本身是"以规则为中心的法律秩序"的前提诉求下,法官自由裁量权的合理性或者正当性经常受到质疑。尤其在我国的背景下,是否赋予法官自由裁量权、法官究竟     

证据制度中法官自由裁量权的类型化分析

法官的自由裁量权是现代证据制度的必要组成部分。这种裁量权可以分为开放型与封闭型两种基本类别。开放型裁量将价值判断引入司法证明的过程中，使诉讼证明区别于纯粹的科学证明。封闭型裁量则以维护立法在逻辑上的一致性为目标，追求司法证明的确定性和可预见性。对两种自由裁量之间关系的不同处理，导致了司法证明在灵活性、判决结果的合法化等方面的差异。我国应当将“以开放的体系追求证据制度在逻辑上的统一”作为证据制度的发展目标，以此确保诉讼证明的和谐性与确定性之间的统一。     

试探规范法官自由裁量权

法官的自由裁量权是法官在多种可能被合法选择适用的法律规则中合理地选择其一,或者是在没有明确规则可以供适用的时候详细阐述裁决理由的权力。籍于部分法官滥用自由裁量权的情形,应当意识到禁止甚至否认法官自由裁量权是毫无意义的,如何消除法官自由裁量行为失范和规范法官自由裁量行为才是问题的关键。文章试图从法官内在素养、自由裁量权的行使环境、对法官自由裁量权的监督这三方面来探讨如何规范法官行使自由裁量权。     

Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana on Avidyā

The concept of avidyā is one of the central categories in the Advaita of Śaṇkara and Maṇḍana. Shifting the focus from māyā, interpreted either as illusion or as the divine power, this concept brings ignorance to the forefront in describing duality and bondage. Although all Advaitins accept avidyā as a category, its scope and nature is interpreted in multiple ways. Key elements in Maṇḍana’s philosophy include the plurality of avidyā, individual selves as its substrate and the Brahman as its field (viṣaya), and the distinction in avidyā between non-apprehension and misapprehension. A closer investigation shows that Maṇḍana is directly influenced by Bhartṛhari’s linguistic non-dualism in developing the concept of avidyā. This study also compares other key constituents such as vivartta and pariṇāma that are relevant to the analysis of avidyā. As the concept of counter-image (pratibimba) emerges as a distinct stream of Advaita subsequent to Maṇḍana, this study also compares the application of pratibimba in the writings of Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana.     

Unraveling the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kāvyaprakāśa</Emphasis>: Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa’s idiosyncratic sequence of topics in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candrāloka</Emphasis>

In his twelfth century alaṃkāraśāstra, the Candrāloka, Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa reverses the sequence of topics found in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyapr-akāśa, an earlier and immensely popular work. With such a structural revisionism, Jayadeva asserts the autonomy of his own work and puts forth an ambitious critique of earlier approaches to literary analysis. Jayadeva investigates the technical and aesthetic components of poetry in the first part of the Candrāloka, prior to his formal semantic investigations in the latter half of the text, thus suggesting that aesthetic evaluations of poetry beneficially inform scientific investigations of language. Jayadeva’s organization of his chapters on the semantic operations, moreover, intimates that the study of suggestive and metaphoric functions of language clarifies our understanding of denotation, which is conventionally understood to be the primary and direct path of verbal designation.     

Immigration,intermarriage and the changing face of Europe in the post war period

In this article we compare the propensity to intermarry of various migrant groups and their children who settled in Germany, France, England, Belgium and the Netherlands in the post-war period, using a wide range of available statistical data. We try to explain different intermarriage patterns within the framework of Alba and Nee's assimilation theory and pay special attention to the role of religion, colour and colonial background. We therefore compare colonial with non colonial migrants and within these categories between groups with ‘European’ (Christian) and non-European (Islam, Hinduism) religions. First of all, religion appears to be an important variable. Migrants whose faith has no tradition in Western Europe intermarry at a much lower rate than those whose religious backgrounds correspond with those that are common in the country of settlement. The rate of ethnic endogamous marriages in Western Europe are highest in Hindu and Muslim communities, often regardless if they came as guest workers or colonial migrants. Whereas differences in religion diminish the propensity to intermarry, colour or ‘racial’ differences on the other hand seem to be less important. This is largely explained by the pre-migration socialisation. Furthermore, the paper argues that the attention to institutions, as rightly advocated by Richard Alba and Victor Nee, needs a more refined and layered elaboration. Institutions, often as barriers to intermarriage, do not only emanate from the receiving society, but also—be it less formalized—within migrant communities. Especially religions and family systems, but also organized nationalist feelings, can have a profound influence on how migrants think about endogamy. Finally, strong pressures to assimilate, often through institutionalized forms of discrimination and stigmatization, not only produce isolation and frustrate assimilation (with resulting low intermarriage rates), but can also stimulate assimilation by 'passing' mechanisms. These factors, together with a more comparative perspective, are not completely ignored in the new assimilation theory, but—as this study of Western European intermarriage patterns stresses—deserve to be included more systematically in historical and social scientist analyses.     

The Supreme Array Scripture: A New Interpretation of the Title “Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra”

This article argues for a new interpretation of the Sanskrit compound gaṇḍa-vyūha as it is used in the common title of the Mahāyāna text the Gaṇḍavyūha-Sūtra.The author begins by providing a brief history of the sūtra’s appellations in Chinese and Tibetan sources. Next, the meanings of gaṇḍa (the problematic member of the compound) are explored. The author proposes that contemporary scholars have overlooked a meaning of gaṇḍa occurring in some compounds, wherein gaṇḍa can mean simply “great,” “big” or “massive.” This general sense is particularly common in the compound gaṇda-śaila (a “massive rock” or “boulder”) and is found in such texts as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Harivaṃśa and the Harṣacarita. Following the discussion of Gaṇḍa, the author examines the term vyūha (“array”) as it is used in the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra. The article concludes with the suggestion that a more appropriate translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra would be “The Supreme array Scripture.”     

Evaluation of six presumptive tests for blood, their specificity, sensitivity, and effect on high molecular-weight DNA

Luminol, leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, Hemident, and Bluestar are all used as presumptive tests for blood. In this study, the tests were subjected to dilute blood (from 1:10,000 to 1:10,000,000), many common household substance, and chemicals. Samples were tested for DNA to determine whether the presumptive tests damaged or destroyed DNA. The DNA loci tested were D2S1338 and D19S433. Leuchomalachite green had a sensitivity of 1:10,000, while the remaining tests were able to detect blood to a dilution of 1:100,000. Substances tested include saliva, semen, potato, tomato, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meat, red onion, red kidney bean, horseradish, 0.1 M ascorbic acid, 5% bleach, 10% cupric sulfate, 10% ferric sulfate, and 10% nickel chloride. Of all the substances tested, not one of the household items reacted with every test; however, the chemicals did. DNA was recovered and amplified from luminol, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, and Bluestar, but not from leuchomalachite green or Hemident.     

Illumination,Imagination, Creativity: Rājaśekhara,Kuntaka, and Jagannātha on <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pratibhā</Emphasis>

Sanskrit poeticians make the visionary faculty of pratibhā a necessary part of the professional poet’s make-up. The term has a pre-history in Bhartṛhari’s linguistic metaphysics, where it is used to explain the unitary perception of meaning. This essay examines the relation between pratibhā and possible theories of the imagination, with a focus on three unusual theoreticians—Rājaśekhara, Kuntaka, and Jagannātha Paṇḍita. Rājaśekhara offers an analysis of pratibhā that is heavily interactive, requiring the discerning presence of the bhāvaka listener or critic; he also positions pratibhā in relation to Bildung (vyutpatti) and practice. For Kuntaka, pratibhā, never an ex nihilo creation by a poet, serves as the basis for the peculiar forms of intensified insight and experience that constitute poetry; these may also involve the creative scrambling and re-articulation of the object in terms of its systemic composition. At times, Kuntaka’s pratibhā comes close to a strong notion of imaginative process. But the full-fledged thematization of the imagination, and of pratibhā as its support and mechanism, is best seen in the seventeenth-century debates preserved for us by Jagannātha. A link is suggested between the discourse of poetic imagination in Jagannātha and similar themes that turn up in Indo-Persian poets such as Bedil.     

Preventing Homelessness for System‐Involved Youth

Too many youth and young adults find themselves on the streets, couch‐surfing with friends, in emergency shelters or worse, after exiting the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. In some circumstances, youth have had court hearings until their exit from the legal system, but those hearings have not focused on long‐range plans of youth and emergencies youth may encounter. In other circumstances, there has been little or no planning prior to discharge, especially for young people who leave the juvenile justice system. Courts can and should prevent, alleviate or end youth homelessness for youth who appear before them through strategies that are enumerated in the recently‐passed NCJFCJ resolution. This article expounds on three of these strategies – coordinating transition and re‐entry plans, insisting on effective legal representation of youth, and utilizing sound judicial leadership. It also describes the concurrent efforts of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice and the American Bar Association's Homeless Youth Legal Network to remove legal barriers and improve outcomes for youth and young adults experiencing homelessness.     

Best practices for structuring a family court parenting plan evaluation under the 2022 AFCC Guidelines

Evaluation appointment orders provide enforceable scaffolding for conduct of family court parenting plan evaluations, and use of the evaluator's reports, feedback, file, and testimony. Unlike a contract, a stipulated or adjudicated appointment order is directly enforceable by the family court. It unambiguously positions the evaluator as the family court's appointee – answerable directly to the court and, in some jurisdictions, protected by quasi-judicial immunity from damages claims. A well-crafted appointment order governs the roles and expectations of the court, the evaluator, the parties, the lawyers, and the collateral witnesses. An appointment order mandates the legal duties, rights, powers, and responsibilities of the professionals, the parties, and the collateral witnesses. At minimum, an appointment order articulates the legal basis for the appointment, the purpose and scope of the evaluation, compensation of evaluator, and the duty of the parties to participate in the process. A written evaluation protocol or procedures statement discloses in advance the methods of investigation and assessment that the evaluator intends to use. Together, the appointment order and written protocol help the evaluator, lawyers, parents, and judge manage the complexity of the evaluation process.     

Monks Who Have Sex: Pārājika Penance in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms

In the study of Buddhism it is commonly accepted that a monk or nun who commits a pārājika offence is permanently and irrevocably expelled from the Buddhist monastic order. This view is based primarily on readings of the Pāli Vinaya. With the exception of the Pāli Vinaya, however, all other extant Buddhist monastic law codes (Dharmaguptaka, Mahāsāṅghika, Mahīśāsaka, Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda) contain detailed provisions for monks and nuns who commit pārājikas but nevertheless wish to remain within the saṅgha. These monastics are not expelled. Rather, they are granted a special status known as the śikṣādattaka. In this paper I explore the rules. concerning pārājika penance and the śikṣādattaka with specific regard to monastic celibacy. Given that five out of six extant law codes recognise this remarkable accommodation to the rule of celibacy, I argue that we must look to Vinayas other than the Pāli Vinaya if we are to arrive at a nuanced and representative view of Indian Buddhist monasticism.

Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 C.E.)

     

What similes in Sāṃkhya do: a comparison of the similes in the Sāṃkhya texts in the Mahābhārata, the Sāṃkhyakārikā and the Sāṃkhyasūtra

In Sāṃkhya similes are an important means to communicate basic philosophical teachings. In the texts similes are frequently used, especially in the Sāṃkhya passages in the Mahābhārata, in the Sāṃkhyakārikā and in the Sāṃkhyasūtra. This paper compares the similes in these three texts and analyses changes in the philosophy as revealed in the similes. A comparison of the similes of Sāṃkhya texts produced over more than one thousand years reveals changes in the emphasis in this philosophical system. The purpose of the similes in the Sāṃkhya passages of the Mahābhārata is to produce an intuitive understanding of the separateness of puruṣa and prakṛti. The similes are designed to lead the listener to understand this basic dualism. In the Sāṃkhyakārikā the most difficult issues are the relationship between prakṛti and puruṣa and the idea of prakṛti working for the salvation of puruṣa. One whole chapter of the Sāṃkhyasūtra is devoted to similes.