Author
Prof Zhiyuan Guo
Organisation/Institution
China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL)
Country
CHINA
Panel
Criminal Law
Title
Evidence Collection and Examination in Cybercrime Cases in China: Challenges and Solutions
Abstract
Cybercrime has become a global problem in recent years. With the growth of cybercrime, Chinese legislature and judicial authorities have issued a series of legal documents to regulate the handling of cybercrime cases. Due to its special features, cybercrime cases are processed in a different way from those in traditional criminal cases. This paper focuses on the evidence collection and examination in cybercrime cases. According to the current legislations on the handling of cybercrime cases in China, there are four key issues deserving exploration: by what procedure the police collect evidence directly from the internet service providers, how the investigators interview or interrogate witnesses via telecommunication, to what extent technical investigation can be used in cybercrime cases, and whether sample evidence collection is scientific. All these issues have legal roots and have caused controversy in practice. This paper will examine these issues in the context of academic debates in China. With regards to the evidence examination, is there any difference between cybercrime cases and traditional cases? This paper will explore this issue from two respects: what to examine and how to examine. Academic debates will be considered, and practical problems will be addressed. In Part I, an introduction to the legal framework on the handling of cybercrime cases in China will lay the groundwork. Part II will discuss the four key issues of collecting evidence in cybercrime cases. Part III will explore what and how to examine the evidence, mostly electronic evidence, in cybercrime cases. Part IV will conclude the paper with some preliminary proposals for future legislative reforms in this area.
Biography
Guo Zhiyuan is a Professor of Law at China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) in Beijing, where she specializes in Criminal Procedure, Evidence, International Human Rights Law and Law and Society Studies. She is Deputy Director of the Center for Criminal Law and Justice, CUPL, Adjunct Professor at Buffalo State College, US and Chinese University of Hong Kong, she is also a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at US-Asia Law Institute, New York University School of Law. Guo was appointed as Guanghua Visiting Scholar at NYU School of Law from 2008-2009 and as Sohmen Visiting Scholar at Faculty of Law, Hong Kong University in 2011. She was appointed as Fulbright Research Scholar and visited Stanford Law School for the 2015-2016 academic year. Recently she was appointed as Academic Writing Fellow of Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center (February 2019). Prof. Guo has published extensively on academic journals in both Chinese and English languages. Her research interests include Exclusionary Rules of Evidence, Plea Bargaining, Effective Counsel, Lay Participation, Criminal Mental Health Law and Anti-Corruption Policies in China. Prof. Guo lectured around the world, including but not limited to New York University (U.S.), University of California at Davis (U.S.), University of Vienna (Austria), University of Zagreb (Croatia), University of Pompeu Fabra(Spain), G D Goenka University (India) and FGV Direito SP (Brazil).
