PRC Civil Procedure Law Revised
In the past 16 years, the PRC Civil Procedure Law has played an important role in safeguarding the civil rights and interests of the parties and regulating the conduct of the other relevant participants in litigation. However, with the rapid development of China’s economy and the increasingly complex and elaborate Chinese legal system, more and more civil and commercial disputes have arisen in recent years and aggrieved parties are more willing than ever to resort to court to resolve their disputes. This has created the need for a revised version of the legislation with more specific guidance and rules, especially regarding retrial and enforcement procedures.
Date:
March 2008
Keywords (click to search): [Civil] [Bankruptcy] [Extension] [Credit Record System] [courts] [Supreme People’s Court]
PRC Civil Procedure Law Revised
In the past 16 years, the PRC Civil Procedure Law has played an important role in safeguarding the civil rights and interests of the parties and regulating the conduct of the other relevant participants in litigation. However, with the rapid development of China"s economy and the increasingly complex and elaborate Chinese legal system, more and more civil and commercial disputes have arisen in recent years and aggrieved parties are more willing than ever to resort to court to resolve their disputes. This has created the need for a revised version of the legislation with more specific guidance and rules, especially regarding retrial and enforcement procedures.
By Ariel Ye and Liu Xiangwen of King & Wood
The PRC Civil Procedure Law was first adopted by the National People"s Congress on April 9 1991 (Civil Procedure Law 1991). According to statistics released by the Supreme People"s Court, courts across China handled approximately 2,497,197 first instance civil and commercial cases in 1991. In 2006, that number skyrocketed to 4,382,407. However, many litigants who were dissatisfied with the original judgements found it difficult to initiate a retrial to pursue their rights in the light of the provisions of Civil Procedure Law 1991. There were relatively limited grounds for retrial. Besides, parties against whom judgements were enforced had managed to escape their obligations with impunity, rendering such judgments useless and this had greatly impaired social justice. Some of the provisions of Civil Procedure Law 1991 had created legal loopholes as a result of a lack of specific guidelines and rules, and had failed to meet the requirements of legal practice, especially the provisions regarding retrial procedure and enforcement of judgments. Over the last few years, the Supreme People"s Court had openly recognised the seriousness of these problems. As the number of complicated civil cases steadily increased, Chinese courts were faced with new and more intricate challenges in the hearing and enforcement process.
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