：循证方法作为一种具有突出实证与规范特质的跨学科研究方法，激发了法学界深入探索的兴趣和深度应用的动力。文章对为什么是“法循证学”而非“循证法学”的学科命名，以及法循证学的内涵与外延、方法特征、方法论意义、研究前景等内容进行了论述。研究认为，将Evidence-based Law命名为“法循证学”，是基于法学领域内新兴交叉学科概念界定的科学根据和事实依据的考量；法循证方法具有方法的科学性、目标的靶向性、知识的系统性等特征；法循证学方法不但呈现出让法治决策有据可依等一般意义，而且，对中国特色法治还具有独特的实践和理论意义；受循证方法在医学进而社会科学领域不断推进的影响，将循证方法引入法律问题的分析评价与法治决策过程，将是中国法循证学的未来发展趋势。

Evidence-based approach, as an inter-discipline and approach between law and evidence-based science, inspires both the interest and the initiative of the law community to further explore and deepen its application in law research and legal decision-making by its outstanding characteristics of empirical and rigorous study.The paper focuses on the definition of the evidence-based law in Chinese law context and its reason behind and evidences below, the connotation and denotation of the evidence-based law concept, its methodological characteristics and meanings for social science research especially law. It concludes that the Chinese name of the evidence-based law is based on the consideration of both the scientific criterion and linguistic facts of the concept definition of new inter-disciplinary subjects and approaches such as the law and economics etc. which have happened in the law field;the evidence-based law approach is an inter-disciplinary paradigm with features such as scientific methodology, targeted objects and systematic knowledge etc.;the evidence-based law approach shows not only the general meaning to the evidence-based legal decision-making, but also some specific practical and theoretical significance?to the rule of law with Chinese characteristics; influenced by the unceasing development of the evidence-based approach firstly in medicine then in social science, Chinese law arena will gradually introduce the evidence-based law approach in analyzing and evaluating legal issues and making legal policies in the near future.