Appeals to Reason

This article considers how statistical reasoning changes conceptions of evidence and proof. Beginning with three Court of Appeal judgments in which proof is quantified, it traces the implications of statistical ways of thinking about proof through the law of criminal evidence. This leads to the bizarre conclusion that proof is, by and large, impossible. The argument then takes a more constructive turn. The way in which the presumption of innocence is conceptualised in statistical argument is criticised and it is suggested that proof depends on a precondition of trust in the way suspects are selected by the police. For that trust to be deserved, police suspects must be chosen in a legitimate manner.     

Detectives Stories and City Life

Detective stories take place mainly in two settings, constantly changing, many faceted big cities filled with strangers, and stable, fairly homogeneous, innocent small towns whose members know one another. The differences in each clarify the qualities of the other. In solving the mystery of the small town, the detective provides moral instruction and restores the town’s innocence. In solving the mystery in the big city the detective reveals the city as part of the mystery and provides the reader with temporary orientation to the city. Mysteries have grown with the growth of the cities and now appear in every country of the world. Harold J. Bershady is an emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent book, edited with Renée Fox and Victor Lidz, is After Parson: A Theory of Action for the 21st Century, published by Russell Sage Press, 2005.     

巨额财产来源不明罪之举证责任

巨额财产来源不明罪中“责令说明”的主体仅指对国家工作人员的职务行为具有监督职权的国家机关。本罪采取的是一种实体上推定的立法方式。这种实体性的推定是基于刑事政策考虑而采取的一种立法技巧,不会对无罪推定原则构成威胁,犯罪嫌疑人和被告人不会因此而承担举证责任。     

冤狱是怎样炼成的——从《窦娥冤》中的举证责任谈起

窦娥的悲剧固然反映了人类认识能力的有限,以及科技水平的不够发达,但是其更深层的原因则在于无罪推定原则的缺失,以及相应的权力约束机制的缺席。无罪推定原则的功能不仅表现在举证责任的分配方面,而且表现在以权利约束权力的制衡方面。因此,现代刑事诉讼制度的完善,仍然应当着眼于基本制度的建设,而与科技基本无关。     

Identifying Miscarriages of Justice: Why Innocence in the UK is Not the Answer

This article examines two contrasting proposals for the reform of criminal appeals: the government's recent proposal that the guilty should no longer have their convictions quashed on 'technicalities'; and calls by campaigners for the Court of Appeal to consider innocence rather than the 'safety of the conviction,' together with their associated attempts to establish Innocence Projects in the UK. Despite the rhetorical power of 'innocence' as a campaigning tool, it is contended that to import such a standard into the legal system would be retrogressive and counter-productive, both as a safeguard against wrongful convictions and in protecting the integrity of the system. In order to be meaningful, due process protections must apply to all. The government's proposals attack this principle directly; innocence campaigners risk unwittingly assisting their endeavours.     

侦查假说与无罪推定辨析

侦查假说是一种查明事实真相的科学认识方法,而无罪推定是现代刑事诉讼的一项基本原则,二者分属不同领域,不可混淆。现代侦查既是认识活动,更是执法活动,因而必须坚持科学方法与法治原则的有机结合。特别在“作案人假说”中,必须坚持以无罪推定原则指导侦查活动。     

Guilty and innocent suspects’ strategies during police interrogations

Abstract

Deception detection has largely failed to investigate guilty and innocent suspects’ strategies. In this study, mock suspects (n=82) were interrogated by police trainees (n=82) who either were or were not trained in the technique to strategically use the evidence (the SUE technique). Analyses revealed that guilty suspects to a higher degree than innocent suspects applied strategies in order to appear truthful. Guilty suspects reported diverse strategies, while innocent suspects reported the strategy to tell the truth like it had happened, indicating a belief in the visibility of innocence. The realism in the suspects’ expectation about how their veracity was judged was largely dependent on the way in which they had been interrogated. The truth-telling suspects who were interrogated according to the SUE technique were optimistic about being judged as truthful; this optimism was warranted as the vast majority of them were classified as truthful. The SUE technique seems to help (a) spotting guilty suspects without them being aware of it and (b) spotting innocent suspects, and they become aware of it. That innocent (but not guilty) suspects can read how the interrogator views them is advantageous for the investigative process.     

审前羁押司法审查的法理基础

审前羁押具有对公民人身自由权的剥夺性和例外性.对审前羁押进行司法审查是控权原则、程序公正原则和无罪推定原则等法治基本原则的必然要求,其实质目的在于保护每一个公民的人身自由权免遭不当侵害.     

佘祥林冤案：我们离无罪推定还有多远

在民众关心、同情佘祥林遭遇的同时,我们更应该反思它带给我们的启示与教训,以推动中国司法改革的发展。本文将着重探讨佘案的症结之一—无推定原则的改革与发展。