評國際和區際兩種司法協助模式下的域外取證──以內地法院為視角

China is the second largest economic entity and the largest trading nation around the world. Under this background, currently China is promoting its strategy of a free trade zone and the Belt and Road Initiative. As a result, the foreign-related civil and commercial cases tried by courts in Mainland China are gradually increasing and so do the taking of evidence abroad. Mainland China courts’ launching actions of the taking of evidence abroad can be carried out by two modes and five approaches. As to the two modes, one is the international mode and the other an interregional mode. The first mode includes three approaches, i.e. by multilateral convention, by bilateral convention and through diplomatic channels. The second mode has two approaches. One is Macau-related and other Hong Kong-related. Taking courts in Mainland China as an example, this paper conducts a comparative study of the system of the taking of evidence abroad under the two modes and five approaches, with the aim to find out its disadvantages and bring forward suggestions to improve it. Three main problems have been discovered. The first is the insufficient quantitative research resulted by the lack of judicial statistical standards of the taking of evidence abroad. The second is the low efficiency caused by the time spent on the taking of evidence abroad. The third is the dilemma faced while taking evidence abroad as it does not have a unified examination standard to review overseas evidence. To address the problems mentioned above, this paper makes theoretical exploration and puts forward the following solutions: improve the judicial statistical standards and conduct more researches on relevant data; innovate the approaches to the taking of evidence abroad under international and interregional judicial assistance and formulate a unified judicial interpretation thus enabling courts in Mainland China to judge the effectiveness of evidence taken from abroad.