On December 26, the Supreme People's Court held a press conference to release the Decision of the Supreme People's Court on Amending the Several Provisions on Civil Procedure Evidence.

The reporter of Beijing Youth Daily learned from the press conference that there were 115 articles in the Revision Decision, and 100 articles in the Civil Evidence Provisions re published according to the Revision Decision. In the revised Civil Evidence Provisions, 11 articles of the original Civil Evidence Provisions that have not been modified are retained, and 47 articles are added to 41 articles of the original Civil Evidence Provisions that have been modified.

Changjiang Bixin, the Deputy Court of the Supreme People's Court, mentioned that, in accordance with the spirit of the Civil Procedure Law and on the basis of the Interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law, the Revised Decision, on the one hand, improved the way and content of the parties' signing when they were questioned and the witnesses' signing when they gave testimony, and added provisions for the appraisers to sign the letter of commitment, so as to strengthen their inner restraint; On the other hand, for the behavior of the parties and witnesses who intentionally make false statements and the appraisers who intentionally make false identification, corresponding punishment measures are provided to promote the implementation of the principle of good faith in civil proceedings.

Zheng Xuelin, President of the First Civil Division of the Supreme People's Court, introduced that the Revised Decision clearly stated that "the parties have the obligation to make true and complete statements about the facts of the case". If they violate this obligation, deliberately make false statements, and obstruct the trial of the people's court, the court should punish them in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Procedure Law on obstruction of compulsory measures in civil proceedings, Similar measures have been taken for the witnesses who appear in court, and the testimony of witnesses should also be standardized.

The Amendment Decision supplements and improves the provisions on the scope of electronic data.

Electronic data is a new form of evidence added to the Civil Procedure Law of 2012. The 2015 Interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law stipulates the meaning of electronic data in principle and generally. In order to solve the operational problems in the trial practice, the Revised Decision has made more detailed provisions on the scope of electronic data in Item 15, stipulated the requirements for the parties to provide and the people's court to investigate, collect and preserve electronic data in Items 16 and 25, stipulated the rules for electronic data review and judgment in Items 105 and 106, and improved the system of electronic data evidence rules. It is of positive significance to unify the standards of law application and protect the litigants' litigation rights.

Jiang Bixin mentioned that it is necessary to accurately grasp the application of electronic data rules and carefully study the impact of new technologies such as big data, cloud computing and blockchain on the investigation, identification and acceptance of evidence.

The Amendment Decision points out that if the parties take electronic data as evidence, they shall provide the original. The copy made by the producer of electronic data that is consistent with the original, or the printed copy directly derived from electronic data or other output media that can be displayed and identified, shall be regarded as the original of electronic data.

In recent years, with the advancement of informatization, people's behavior has gradually changed from "offline" to "online", and more and more evidence in litigation is presented in the form of electronic data. In particular, the rapid development of new technologies such as big data, cloud computing and blockchain has provided a new vision for the application of civil evidence rules, and also brought new challenges. People's courts at all levels should pay close attention to the impact of new information technology on civil trials, strengthen research on the application of electronic data rules, actively explore ways and methods to improve the accuracy of case fact finding by using blockchain technology, and take the new technological progress as an opportunity to constantly improve the capacity and level of civil trials.

At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the litigation guidance for the parties, actively do a good job in the interpretation work, increase the publicity of law popularization, guide the parties to correctly use new forms of evidence and methods of proof to complete the proof, save the litigation costs of the parties and the trial resources of the people's court, and improve the objectivity and fairness of the investigation of the facts of the case.

"It is necessary to accurately grasp the relationship between the people's court's ex officio investigation of evidence and respect for the exercise of the party's disciplinary power, as well as the implementation of the party's burden of proof." Jiang Bixin said, "strengthening the party's main position does not mean that the people's court does nothing. On the issue of evidence, the people's court can neither take all the evidence nor let it go. For the facts that may damage the national interests and social public interests, the facts about identity relations, and the facts that the parties maliciously collude to damage the legitimate rights and interests of others, even if the parties have no dispute about the facts, the people's court cannot be restricted by the parties' admission, but should give full play to the function and role of investigating and collecting evidence on their own authority. "

It is reported that, in principle, facts other than the first paragraph of Article 96 of the Interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law cannot be investigated and collected ex officio. At the same time, in the process of litigation, the people's court should strengthen the exercise of the right of interpretation, strengthen the guidance for the parties to provide evidence, and urge the parties to actively, comprehensively, correctly and honestly exercise the right to provide evidence.

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The Revision Decision clearly states that electronic data includes the following information and electronic documents:

Information released by web pages, blogs, microblogs and other network platforms; Communication information of network application services such as SMS, email, instant messaging, and distribution groups; User registration information, identity authentication information, electronic transaction record, communication record, login log and other information; Documents, pictures, audio, video, digital certificates, computer programs and other electronic documents; Other information stored, processed and transmitted in digital form that can prove the facts of the case.