Guide:
The revision of the Civil Procedure Law has elevated the mature and feasible experience in the pilot reform of the diversion of complicated and simple civil procedures into legal provisions. The revised Civil Procedure Law improves relevant procedural rules, promotes the governance of litigation sources, improves the litigation mediation docking mechanism, innovates online litigation models, and strives to solve problems such as insufficient channels for dispute resolution, inaccurate matching of judicial resources and judicial needs, and inconvenient litigation processes and methods, so as to promote the all-round improvement of judicial quality and efficiency.
On December 24, 2021, the 32nd Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted to pass the decision on amending the Civil Procedure Law. President Xi Jinping signed Presidential Decree No. 106 for promulgation, which will take effect on January 1, 2022.
Adapt to the growing judicial needs of the people
The Civil Procedure Law is the basic law of the state and the basic rules that regulate civil procedure. The mainland's current Civil Procedure Law was adopted by the Fourth Session of the Seventh National People's Congress in 1991, and before this revision, it has undergone three amendments in 2007, 2012 and 2017, and the civil procedure rules have been continuously optimized and improved, which has played an important role in protecting the litigation rights of the parties and ensuring the fair and efficient trial of civil cases by the people's courts.
In recent years, with the development and changes of the economic and social situation and the comprehensive arrival of the information age, the people's judicial needs have become increasingly diversified, the number of contradictions and disputes has continued to grow at a high speed, and the situation of civil trial work has undergone profound changes, and some provisions of the Civil Procedure Law have not been able to fully meet the people's judicial needs for fair, efficient, and convenient dispute resolution, which restricts the optimal allocation of judicial resources and the effective improvement of judicial efficiency, and it is necessary to further improve them.
On December 28, 2019, the 15th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress made a decision on authorizing the Supreme People's Court to carry out the pilot reform of the diversion of complicated and simple civil procedures in some regions, authorizing courts in 20 cities in 15 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) to carry out pilot work for a period of two years.
According to the requirements of the authorization decision, "after the expiration of the pilot period, where practice proves feasible, the relevant laws shall be revised and improved." After nearly two years of piloting, the pilot measures have achieved remarkable results, the design of relevant procedural rules has been proved to be feasible in practice, and the conditions for amending the Civil Procedure Law have been met.
On October 19, 2021, the draft amendment to the Civil Procedure Law was submitted to the 31st Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress for initial deliberation. After the meeting, the Legislative Affairs Committee of the NPC Standing Committee will print and distribute the draft amendment to relevant central units, provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), some districted cities, grass-roots legislative contact points, and some NPC deputies Chinese to solicit opinions.
The Constitution and Law Committee of the National People's Congress, the Supervision and Judicial Committee, and the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee jointly held forums and went to Beijing to conduct research and study, extensively listening to and jointly studying the opinions of various quarters. Subsequently, the Constitution and Law Committee of the National People's Congress held two meetings, and in accordance with the spirit of the chairman's meeting, the deliberation opinions of the members of the Standing Committee and the opinions of various quarters, the draft amendment was deliberated and revised article by article, and submitted to the 32nd session of the 13th National People's Congress Standing Committee for second instance on December 20, 2021.
The second reading of the amendment draft makes a number of changes
Compared with the first draft, the second draft of the amendment draft makes many changes. The first reading draft of the amendment stipulates that civil litigation activities conducted online through information network platforms shall have the same legal effect as offline litigation activities. In order to respect and protect the parties' right to choose online litigation, the second reading draft of the amendment draft adds a provision: With the consent of the parties, civil litigation activities can be carried out online through the information network platform. In order to better protect the litigation rights of the parties, the second reading draft of the amendment draft makes it clear that with the consent of both parties, second-instance civil cases can be tried by a single judge.
The first reading draft of the amendment stipulates that in cases where small claims procedures are applied, and the parties expressly state that they have waived the time limit for replying and presenting evidence, the people's court may directly hold a hearing. Where the defendant requests a reply, the time limit is seven days, which may be extended to 15 days upon application in special circumstances; the period for presenting evidence must not exceed 7 days, and if there are real difficulties, it may be extended to 15 days upon application. It has been suggested that the current Civil Procedure Law does not have special provisions on the presentation of evidence or the defence of small claims cases. This provision reduces the time limit for the parties to reply and present evidence, which is not conducive to protecting the litigation rights of the parties. The second reading of the amendment draft deleted this provision.
The first reading draft of the amendment stipulates that in cases where small claims procedures are applied for trial, procedures such as prosecution, defense, summons, service, and court hearings and the content of judgment documents may be simplified, but the litigation rights of the parties shall be guaranteed. It has been suggested that the small claims procedure is located in the chapter "Summary Procedure", which already provides for the trial of simple civil cases, in which parties and witnesses can be summoned, litigation documents served, and cases heard in a simple manner. This provision could be applied to small claims cases and there is no need to repeat the provision. The second reading of the amendment draft deleted this provision.
The first reading draft of the amendment stipulates that mediation agreements reached through mediation by mediation organizations established in accordance with law or mediators serving in accordance with law may apply for judicial confirmation. Some people have suggested that since the mediation agreement after confirmation by the court is enforceable, the expansion of the relevant scope should be strict and cautious, and it is suggested that the provision that the mediation agreement reached by the mediator who serves in accordance with the law can apply for judicial confirmation should be deleted. The second reading of the amendment draft makes amendments to the relevant provisions.
Elevate the pilot reform experience to legal provisions
On December 24, 2021, the decision on amending the Civil Procedure Law was adopted. The revision of the Civil Procedure Law focuses on the long-term development of the civil procedure system, and upgrades the mature and feasible experience in the pilot reform of the diversion of complicated and simplified civil procedures into legal provisions, mainly involving judicial confirmation procedures, small claims procedures, summary procedures, sole appointment system, online litigation and other aspects.
The revision of the Civil Procedure Law reasonably expands the scope of application of judicial confirmation procedures, extends the scope of application of judicial confirmation procedures to mediation agreements reached by mediation organizations established in accordance with law, allows intermediate people's courts to accept applications for judicial confirmation that meet their jurisdictional standards, optimizes the rules for judicial confirmation of case jurisdiction, and clarifies the different jurisdiction rules for judicial confirmation cases in cases where the people's court appoints mediation and mediation organizations mediate on their own, depending on the subject of mediation and the type of mediation.
The revision of the Civil Procedure Law has improved the procedures for small claims, clarified the applicable conditions and subject amount standards of small claims procedures, and stipulated that the procedures for small claims should only apply to "simple monetary payment civil cases where the facts are clear, the relationship between rights and obligations is clear, and the dispute is not large", and the subject amount standard is raised on the original basis to "less than 50% of the average annual salary of the employed person in the previous year". At the same time, it stipulates the circumstances in which the procedures for small claims are applied by consensus, clarifies the negative list of procedures applicable to small claims, adds provisions on the procedural trial methods and trial periods for small claims, and adds a procedural conversion mechanism for small claims.
The revision of the Civil Procedure Law improves the summary procedure, adds provisions on the extension of the trial limit of the simplified procedure, and clarifies that in the case of the simplified procedure, "if there are special circumstances that need to be extended, it may be extended by one month with the approval of the president of this court".
The revision of the Civil Procedure Law expands the scope of application of the sole appointment system, stipulates the case trial mode of the ordinary procedure single-appointment system and the second-instance single-judge system, and clarifies that the basic people's courts hearing first-instance civil cases with "clear basic facts and clear relationships of rights and obligations" may apply the sole appointment system for trial. Where an intermediate people's court concludes an appeal against the first-instance trial using the summary procedures or is not satisfied with a ruling, where the facts are clear and the relationship between rights and obligations is clear, the sole-party system may be applied to the trial with the consent of both parties.
The revision of the Civil Procedure Law adds a new negative list of the application of the sole appointment system, stipulating that the one-person system shall not be applied to six types of cases involving major interests, affecting social stability, producing a wide range of social impacts, new types or difficult and complicated cases, and the collegial system that should be applied by law;
The revision of the Civil Procedure Law improves the rules of online litigation, adds provisions on the legal validity of online litigation, clarifies that the application of online litigation requires the consent of the parties as the premise, and online litigation activities have the same legal effect as offline litigation activities; optimizes the rules of electronic service, on the basis of following the principle of voluntariness of the parties, increases the application of electronic service, allows the application of electronic service to judgments, rulings, and mediation documents, stipulates the obligation of the people's court to provide paper documents required by the deliverer; shortens the period for service of announcements. In accordance with the changes in economic and social development, the service period of the announcement will be shortened from 60 days to 30 days.
Realize the organic unity of judicial fairness and efficiency
"The revision of the Civil Procedure Law implements Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, adapts to the development and changes of the times, responds to the actual needs of the people, and takes into account multiple litigation value orientations such as fairness, efficiency, and rights protection." Du Tao, deputy director of the Civil Law Office of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said that the revision of the Civil Procedure Law is of great significance to implementing the strategy of comprehensively governing the country according to law and further improving the socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics.
Du Tao said that the revision of the Civil Procedure Law extends the scope of application of the judicial confirmation procedure to the mediation agreement reached by the mediation organization established according to law, providing a strong judicial guarantee for the multi-party dispute resolution force of the "integration of the three governances" under the leadership of the party committee. At the same time, by optimizing the trial process, improving the procedural articulation mechanism, and strengthening information technology support, the parties are provided with more procedural choices and judicial incremental services.
The revision of the Civil Procedure Law strengthens the protection of litigation rights and interests and respects the right to due process. For example, in the application of online litigation, it is clear that the consent of the parties should be taken as the premise; in small claims procedures, the mode of the parties choosing to apply has been added; in the application of the adjudication organization, it is stipulated that the parties have the right to raise objections to the application of the sole appointment system, and the parties have the right to choose the application of the single-appointment system in the second instance.
"This will fully respect the parties' right to choose the litigation model, strengthen the parties' autonomy in the application of procedures, clarify the parties' right to choose and object to the application of the adjudication organization, effectively strengthen the parties' supervision and restraint on the adjudication organization, and ensure that the sole appointment system applies legal norms." Du Tao said.
After the revision of the Civil Procedure Law, the procedures, mechanisms and methods of the people's courts' civil trial work will undergo profound changes, and judicial resources will be optimally allocated. For example, for some simple first-instance cases, it is stipulated that the ordinary procedure sole adjudication system may be applied when the basic facts are clear and the relationship between rights and obligations is clear; the period for service of the announcement is changed from 60 days to 30 days.
"This will effectively avoid phenomena such as excessively long trial cycles, deliberate evasion by parties, and malicious delay in litigation, and will improve the quality and efficiency of trial work, achieve the organic unity of fairness and efficiency, and promote the all-round improvement of the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of trials." Du Tao said.
While improving judicial efficiency, the revision of the Civil Procedure Law also makes a series of provisions to ensure the quality of cases and ensure judicial fairness. For example, the scope of application and negative list of the procedures for small claims, the single-party system for ordinary procedures, and the two-instance sole-trial system have been strictly demarcated; in view of the new situations discovered in the trial process of small claims cases and sole-family cases, the mechanisms and standards for the transformation of trial procedures and trial organizations have been clarified.
"This will standardize judges' exercise of adjudication power in accordance with the law, ensure that the collegial system is applied to disputes that are relatively difficult and complex, have a high degree of social concern, and involve large interests, and strengthen the supervision of the trial of cases." Du Tao said that the revision of the Civil Procedure Law effectively takes into account the quality and efficiency of cases, realizes the organic unity of judicial fairness and efficiency, and ensures that the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.
Reporter: Zhang Baoshan
Editor: Gong Yixi
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Yuchao