论电子邮件证据的保全和应用

电子邮件是Internet应用最广的服务,它不仅能够用于传送文件、个人通信、利用"匿名FTP"访问远程信息资源等,还可以被用来传输商务往来文件,进行E-mail论坛讨论。由于电子邮件的内容反映了案件当事人的行为,留下了行为人制作、发送和接收电子邮件的相关信息,所以,电子邮件的内容对于证明某些待证事实具有重要作用。为此,有必要在介绍电子邮件的工作原理的基础上,探讨电子邮件证据在诉讼中的保全原则和方法,以及在诉讼中的应用。     

论当代民事证据法的范围与任务

证据法是独立于实体法与诉讼法的法律范畴,界定当代民事证据法的范围需要协调证据法与实体法、诉讼法的关系,要在证据规则与法官自由裁量之间寻求平衡。将证据实体规则作为民事证据法的主要内容包括证据能力、证据证明力、证明标准以及证明责任的有关规定。当代民事证据法的基本任务是在实现事实认定的准确性的基础之上保障诉讼效率并协调司法证明过程中的价值冲突。     

对证据法中物证的理解

由于事物普遍联系的规律的作用,犯罪行为、民事纠纷和违反行政法规的活动,在其实施和发展过程中,必然会对周围的事物产生一定的影响,留下某些痕迹。即使有人毁灭,伪造证据,其毁灭伪造证据行为又会留下新的痕迹。那些受到犯罪行为,民事纠纷或者行政纠纷发生过程中的影响而在形状、位置等方面发生变化的物品,就储存了有关案件实际情况的信息,从而可以成为证据。在大多数案件中都是可以收集到物证的,因而它是司法工作中经常使用的证据种类之一。     

行政诉讼中原告的举证责任

证据规定中原告的举证责任内涵模糊不清,建议确立结果责任意义上的举证责任原则。证明标准的缺失加剧了举证责任的不确定,建议区分起诉人的初步证明责任和原告的举证责任。证据规定遗漏了因事实行为引发的行政赔偿诉讼中原告的举证责任,建议增补完善。原告对某些程序性事实应承担举证责任。     

Candidate-centric systems and the politicization of ethnicity: evidence from Indonesia

When and why do electoral candidates politicize ethnicity? From the literature, we might expect this behaviour to occur during democratic transitions or under proportional rules. However, empirical support for these arguments is mixed. This article presents a new approach, arguing that candidate-centric rules offer candidates incentives to politicize ethnicity. The argument is tested in Indonesia with empirical evidence drawn from coding newspaper reports on campaign events, endorsements and group appeals. Indonesia used party-centric rules from 1997 to 2004, and even though the country democratized during this period, the politicization of ethnicity actually declined. I show how party-centric rules, coupled with a national economic crisis, encouraged candidates to campaign on broad national platforms of reform and development, thereby appealing to the poor rather than to ethnic groups. Between 2004 and 2009, the system became more candidate-centric and the politicization of ethnicity increased. I argue that changes in the system freed candidates from national party platforms and motivated them to campaign on their local connections with ethnic groups. This study is particularly pertinent amidst the push for direct candidate-centric elections in the developing world and the lack of literature on how such rules could affect ethnic politics.     

Do electoral rules have an effect on electoral behaviour? An impact assessment

Abstract

Electoral democracies worldwide are all organised around elections but the rules under which the elections are organised differ greatly from one country to another. These electoral rules, such as whether voting is compulsory or what electoral system is used, are thought of as strongly affecting voters’ behaviour and the choices they make. If electoral rules indeed shape citizens’ electoral behaviour, the implication is that theories of what explains voters’ choices are country-specific as well. This is in sharp contrast to the idea that theories of electoral behaviour are generalisable. This special issue tackles this question and offers an assessment of the impact of electoral rules on voters’ behaviour, on the one hand, and the generalisability of individual-level theories of voting behaviour, on the other. The collection of papers furthermore offers an important contribution in terms of the kind of electoral rules that are scrutinised, with several papers focusing on the little-investigated phenomenon of preferential voting.     

论检察机关的犯罪指控体系——以侦查指引制度为视角的分析

构建侦查指引制度是检察机关健全和完善以证据为核心的刑事犯罪指控体系的基石性问题。经过近30年的实践发展,侦查指引在制度定位上实现了从法律监督向服务公诉的转变,并且在捕诉一体格局下获得了新发展。基于固有侦查模式存在的显著弊端,在全面推行刑事诉讼以审判中心的改革和社会犯罪形势发生明显变化的情况下,侦查指引被赋予了完善以证据为核心的刑事指控体系的重要使命。从理论上讲,侦查指引制度的构建和运行与警检结构的深层次命题并不存在绝对“依附关系”,但为了避免其落入颠覆警检结构的理论窠臼,有必要将侦查指引与参与侦查、指挥侦查进行合理区分,并正确认识监督与指引两项职能之间的冲突和调和。在运行多年并取得一定积极成效的同时,侦查指引也面临着一些内在问题和外来质疑,需要予以进一步解决。     

Establishing phone-pair co-usage by comparing mobility patterns

In forensic investigations it is often of value to establish whether two phones were used by the same person during a given time period. We present a method that uses time and location of cell tower registrations of mobile phones to assess the strength of evidence that any pair of phones were used by the same person. The method is transparent as it uses logistic regression to discriminate between the hypotheses of same and different user, and a standard kernel density estimation to quantify the weight of evidence in terms of a likelihood ratio. We further add to previous theoretical work by training and validating our method on real world data, paving the way for application in practice. The method shows good performance under different modeling choices and robustness under lower quantity or quality of data. We discuss practical usage in court.     

Sampling of explosive residues: The use of a gelatine-based medium for the recovery of ammonium nitrate

Forensic scientists must be able to recover traces of any original explosive materials not consumed in the detonation, in a careful controlled manner to aid a crime reconstruction. In current sampling techniques, the collection efficiency of post-blast residue is highly variable and often dependent on the swabbing materials and solvent systems used. To address these method limitations, this study presents a gelatine-based sampling medium and assesses its capabilities for the collection of ammonium nitrate. Common surfaces were spotted with a known concentration of ammonium nitrate, the unset gel applied, allowed to set, and then peeled from the surface. The gel was dissolved, and solid phase extraction employed to isolate the target explosive compound and remove the constituents of the gel. The eluate was concentrated and subsequently analysed and quantified. Overall, the gel formulation was able to collect ammonium nitrate from all of the test surfaces, with recoveries ranging from 0.1% to 61.7%. This study presents a gelatine-based formulation that has the potential to become a valuable asset in the forensic tool kit for the collection of explosive traces. A key attribute of the gel is that it offers an alternative recovery tool to conventional swabbing and solvent extraction methods.     

司法鉴定行政与司法视角的边界——民诉证据司法解释鉴定内容的思考

2019年12月26日,最高人民法院发布了《关于修改〈关于民事诉讼证据的若干规定〉的决定》,备受司法界关注。其中,涉及司法鉴定的条款达24条之多,笔者结合《司法鉴定程序通则》,对相关内容予以了梳理与比较,揭示了民事证据规定给司法鉴定带来的变化与问题。民事证据规定重点规制了司法鉴定启动、受理、鉴定人出庭接受质询、鉴定人诚信承诺、鉴定人权利保障,鉴定人的出庭义务、遵守鉴定时限的义务,以及围绕鉴定资料的真实性、合法性方面的规定,以期保障鉴定质量。与此同时,民事证据规定也带来了管理上的边界之争的问题,包括司法鉴定行政管理部门与法院之间、法院与司法鉴定机构之间,以及法官与鉴定人之间权利义务的边界之争与之推,司法鉴定呈现多头管理已见端倪。本研究直面司法鉴定发展中的问题,建议尽早启动司法鉴定立法工作,强化鉴定意见的法庭质证,明确虚假鉴定的认定标准,梳理鉴定多头管理乱象等等,希望可以对司法鉴定制度的改革有所裨益。