日本刑事證據法則修法對我國之啟示

The Inspiration to Taiwan from Japanese Amendments to the Legal Rules of Evidence in its Criminal Procedure Code

我國刑事訴訟法近代化，以及從法律繼受的觀點，日本至今依然深深地影響著我國。日本從1948年第二次世界大戰後，將職權主義改為當事人主義之立法，到2020年為止，已歷經修法50次；而引人注目，就是從2016年至2020年這五年之間，一共修法了5次；而其中，就2016年（平成28年）6月3日法律第54號通過諸多的立法，總共增刪條文達83條之多，惟限於篇幅，僅就前三次修法中，有關證據法則修正之重要部分，就證人刑事免責制度、詰問證人時之保護及其證人等安全不受威脅之細緻化措施、增設偵查中之錄音及錄影，以及證據開示對象之擴大等探討，以作為我國法之借鏡與參考。

As Taiwan was subject to the Japanese colonial rule for fifty years, the local criminal procedure system commenced modernization. In addition, based on the point of view on the historical origin of judicial system, Japanese Criminal Procedure Code (“JCPC”) remains having a profound effect on Taiwan. Starting from the end of World War II in 1948, the JCPC adopted the legislation of Adversary system in lieu of the Authority system and the JCPC was amended 50 times up to 2020. It is noteworthy that the latest five amendments from 2016 to 2020 are outstanding. Among these amendments, about 83 Clauses are amended by legislation No.54 on 2016 June 3 (or Ping-Chen Year 28). As constrained from the publication space, this study will focus on the major change of legal rules of evidence in the early three amendments in quite considerate measures on witness’s criminal privileges, protection to conduct the examining of a witness, assurance of witness’s safety and newly requirement on audio or video recording during the investigation, relevant concerned parties invited for evidence disclosure etc., for our comparison and reference. In the meantime, the witness’s criminal privileges in JCPC were proposed by the Prosecutor. It implied a significant meaning in Japanese criminal policy to introduce such a criminal privileges, in particular for those organized or structural crimes that are specifically difficult to identify, break and capture. Under such a circumstance, the witness will refuse testimony under the privilege against self-incrimination. However, the Prosecutors deemed it worthwhile to force the witness to testify so as to gain the advantageous evidence against those organized or structural crimes via provision of an reward to the witness. By comparing the considerate protection measures in JCPC to conduct the examining of a witness or audio, video recording during the investigation, this study tries to identify the difference with the same in Taiwanese Criminal Procedure Code (“TCPC”) and the audio, video recording stipulated in Article 100-1 of TCPC and subsequently introduce the revised evidence disclosure after long practiced in JCPC and its inspiration to us.