Matoba Ryoji
Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine Osaka University, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Leg Med (Tokyo). 2003 Mar;5 Suppl 1:S58-9. doi: 10.1016/s1344-6223(02)00089-5.
The origin of modern Japanese criminal procedure can be traced back to 1880, when the Code of Criminal Procedure saying that the judge can summon an expert to make an expert opinion was enacted. Broadly speaking, this procedure derived from continental law. After the end of World War II, some Anglo-American approaches were fused with the former continental system. Ex-officio examination of evidence by the court was abolished and the system of cross-examination by the parties was adopted. However, the system of 'expert opinion' did not change basically. Now-a-days, we have two experts; expert and expert witness. When the judge asked 'expert opinion' to expert, he is an expert. However, when either of parties asked, then he is called 'expert witness'. Usually, expert witnesses are selected from professors or associate professors of universities. But accepting expert witness is not estimated for promotion in Japanese Medical College, so sometimes to select expert witness is difficult. Then, justice began to educate medical doctors to receive expert witness and has asked to medical society to offer the list of adequate expert witnesses, and also our society cooperates with this. Japanese Society of Legal Medicine instituted the medical speciality certification system, which includes such specialities as inspection of corpses and legal medicine that focuses on forensic practice. This means that our society certifies those who having diploma of legal medicine as expert witness.
现代日本刑事诉讼程序的起源可以追溯到1880年，当时颁布了《刑事诉讼法》，该法规定法官可以传唤专家出具专家意见。从广义上讲，这一程序源自大陆法系。第二次世界大战结束后，一些英美法系的做法与先前的大陆法系体系相融合。法院依职权审查证据的做法被废除，取而代之的是当事人交叉询问制度。然而，“专家意见”制度基本没有改变。如今，我们有两种专家：专家和专家证人。当法官向专家询问“专家意见”时，他就是专家。然而，当任何一方当事人询问时，那么他就被称为“专家证人”。通常，专家证人是从大学教授或副教授中挑选出来的。但在日本医学院，接受专家证人的工作对晋升没有帮助，所以有时挑选专家证人很困难。于是，司法部门开始对医生进行培训，使其能够成为专家证人，并要求医学协会提供合适的专家证人名单，我们的协会也对此予以配合。日本法医学协会设立了医学专业认证制度，其中包括尸体检验和侧重于法医实践的法医学等专业。这意味着我们的协会认证那些拥有法医学文凭的人作为专家证人。
