THE FREE OBJECTIVE EVALUATION OF THE EVIDENCE IN EUROPEAN CRIMINAL LAW

The Court must, when it gives reasons for its decision and it reports on the discovered facts, the evidence obtained and set as the basis of its findings, the claims of the parties and particularly of the accused, which must be answered, and the legal considerations for the interpretation and application of the rule of law, further act a free and objective assessment of evidence. This means, among other things, that it must give reasons for giving or not giving a certain faith to certain evidence and in particular to explain why it chose those as the basis of its findings, although there were others which gravitated to the opposite version. In each case this assessment and justification should respect to the rules of logic, the lessons of common experience and the safe diagnoses of science and technique. These are objective criterias for the evaluation of the evidence, which introduce some limitations on the principle of free assessment of evidence, so that it does not lead to arbitrary and unfair decisions.法院在阐述判决理由，列明已查明的事实、作为裁判基础的已调取的证据、各方当事人尤其是需予回应的被告人主张，以及用于解释和适用法治的法律考量时，尚需对证据进行自由且客观的评价。这意味着，除其他事项外，法院应当阐明对特定证据予以采信或不予采信的理由，尤其需说明为何选定前述证据作为裁判基础，即便存在指向相反事实版本的其他证据。在每一起案件中，该证据评价与说理均应遵循逻辑规则、日常经验法则以及科学与技术的可靠结论。上述均为证据评价的客观标准，这些标准对自由心证原则设定了一定限制，以防作出恣意且不公的裁判。