Witnesses’ Appearance in Court and Guarantees for the Defendant's Right to Confrontation

Abstract

刑事证人出庭作证的主要意义在于保障被告人的对质权。因此，刑事证人出庭问 题基本上可替换为以被告人对质权为核心的必要证人出庭问题。由于中国的刑事诉讼 法及其司法解释并未赋予被告人对质权，实践中必要证人出庭率仅为25%左右。这种 无对质权语境下的刑事审判，通常表现为积极的实体真实主义、定罪量刑的非精细化 操作和裁判正当性来源的单一化。为改变这一局面，有必要确立对质权制度及相应的 保障机制。 关键词: 证人出庭 必要证人出庭率 对质权 裁判正当性 The main significance of witnesses’ appearing in court to testify in criminal trials is that this practice guarantees the defendant's right to confrontation. The issue can thus be framed in another way, as the issue of the appearance in court of the necessary witnesses. Here, the defendant's right to confront is the key point. Since neither China's criminal procedural law nor corresponding judicial interpretations have granted the defendant the right to confront, the rate of appearance of the necessary witnesses amounts in practice to only about twenty‐ five percent. Criminal trials conducted in the absence of the right to confrontation usually conform to the doctrine of positive substantive truth and manifest a lack of care in conviction and sentencing as well as reliance on a single source of legitimacy in reaching judgments. To correct this state of affairs, it is necessary to institute the right to confront and corresponding safeguards.