自由心证制度所面临的两大挑战

在现代大陆法系诉讼中 ,自由心证是事实认定的基石。虽然学界也提出了这种“自由”并非是绝对的 ,但是 ,主要是从“自由心证”在客观上必然受到“可接受性”标准限制 ,来讨论其“自由”的相对性。这似显不足。本文拟从程序运作的角度来探讨自由心证在实践层面上所面临的两大挑战 :一个来自科技证据的广泛应用 ;另一个是排除规则的实施。注意到这两个挑战 ,对中国的司法改革中证据制度的设计有一定的启示。

Two Challenges Confronted by Doctrine of Discretionary Evaluation of Evidence

Discretional evaluation of evidence is the cornerstone of fact finding in modern litigation of the continental law system. As is known, the discretion here is limited because the verdict must be acceptable objectively. However, the article shows that the discretionary evaluation of evidence will inevitably meet two challenges, one from the science-oriented fact finding and another from the application of the exclusionary rules.