国际法院对当事国专家意见证明价值的评估

Evaluation of the Probative Value of Party-appointed Expert Opinion by the International Court of Justice

当事国聘请的专家所出具的专家意见是国际法院认定争议事实依赖的一种重要证据。专家的资质、专长和独立性以及专家意见所依据的信息和数据及其处理方法和产生的结论是影响专家意见证明价值的主要因素。鉴于专家的聘请事宜由当事国主导,法院不会强制要求专家必须在资质、专长和独立性等方面满足某些特定的条件。对于可能影响专家意见证明价值的部分因素,法院尚未发表一般性的观点或具体意见。法院可在司法实践中更加积极主动地回应当事国的争辩点,也可就评估当事国专家意见证明价值的方法发表更具针对性的意见。

Party-appointed expert evidence plays an increasingly important role in the fact-finding practice of the International Court of Justice. A variety of factors, including the independence, qualification and expertise of the experts, raw data and information, the processing of data and information by experts and the derived conclusion, have been taken into consideration by the Court in assessing the probative value of expert evidence. The Court has not imposed restrictions on the independence, qualification and expertise of experts, since the Parties enjoy discretion in the designation and appointment of party-appointed experts. In a majority of the cases, the Court has not addressed the impact of various factors on the evidentiary weight of the expert evidence presented by the parties. Nor has it made general observations as to how the party-appointed expert evidence should be evaluated. A proactive approach could be taken by the Court in the future cases to respond to the points of contention between parties and to set out more detailed rules concerning the assessment of party-appointed expert evidence.