Civil Justice in China

• Author: Y. Fu - X. Meng
• Position: Peking University (Beijing, China)
• Pages: 94-124

BRICS LAW JOURNAL Volume III (2016) Issue 4

CIVIL JuSTICE In CHIna

YULIN FU,

Peking University (Beijing, China)

XING MENG,

Peking University (Beijing, China)

DOI: 10.21684/2412-2343-2016-3-4-94-124

This article presents a basic and comprehensive introduction of Chinese civil justice.

It gives a complete picture of Chinese civil justice, including the brief history, the court

and judge system, the outline of the procedure, and the internationalization. Through

the introduction, one can nd that Chinese civil procedure law is a mixture of Soviet

procedural concept, Chinese local culture, and western procedural concept and rules. It is

still a developing procedure and experiences a process from resisting western procedural

concept to gradually accepting and learning from it. It used to be a supra-inquisitorial

trial model with overwhelming focus on conciliation, but is now transforming to a party

disposition trial model with preference to conciliation under the premise of voluntariness.

With the globalization of economy, the international cooperation of China, especially

with the BRICS countries, will also become more and more important.

Keywords: China law; civil procedure; court system; civil justice; conciliation.

Recommended citation: Yulin Fu & Xing Meng, Civil Justice in China, 3(4) BRICS Law

Journal 94–124 (2016).

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Brief History

2. Courts and Judges

3. Scope of Civil Procedure

4. Structure of Civil Procedure

YULIN FU, XING MENG 95

5. Fundamental Principles

6. Access to Justice

7. Varity of Procedures

8. Jurisdictions

9. Role of the Judge

10. Evidence

11. Ordinary Procedure of First Instance

12. Provisional Remedies

13. Simplied Procedure

14. Appellate Procedure

15. Adjudication Supervision Procedure

16. Public Interest Action

17. Litigation Costs

18. Enforcement

19. ADR

20. Role of Academia

21. Comparative and Cultural Observations

22. International Matters and BRICS Cooperation

in Civil Procedure Perspectives

Conclusion

Introduction

This article aims at making a basic introduction of Chinese civil justice under

the comparative view, giving special emphasis to the unique features of Chinese

procedural system under the inuence of Chinese traditional culture, the socialist

ideology and the procedural system of the Soviet Union the Western Countries.

Generally, the development of Chinese civil justice of New China (after 1969) can be

divided into 4 stages: (1) 1949–1982 when there wasn’t a written Civil Procedure Law;

(2) 1982–1991 while the “Test” Civil Procedure Law operated; (3) 1991–2012 as the rst

formal Civil Procedure Law of China operated, together with general judicial reforms

aimed to adjust the roles of judges vs. parties; and (4) post 2012 as the enactment

of the 2012 amendment of the Civil Procedure Law and the 2015 “Interpretation” of

the law issued by the Supreme Court, together with general judicial system reforms

aimed to adjust the roles of judges vs. administrative leaders and court sta.

1. Brief History

When the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) was founded on Oct. 1, 1949, in order

to draw a clear demarcation between the new socialist country and the old capitalist