Scholars want outdated civil law revised

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2001-04-10
China Daily

Chinese law scholars say it is time to think about revising the 10-year-old Civil Procedure Law because the nation's market economy is developing at an increasingly high speed and judicial reform is deepening.

"Conditions are now ripe to consider revision as the theory and practice of civil law have both been abundant during the past ten years," said Jiang Wei, a professor of civil procedural laws with the Renmin University of China and a major drafter of the 10-year-old law.

"The implementation of this law helped to highlight the importance of procedural justice in a nation where substantive law prevails over procedural law and criminal law prevails over civil law," said Fan Chongyi, director of the Procedural Law Research Centre with the China University of Politics and Law.

The law was widely regarded as a milestone in the country's legislation 10 years ago, he said.

However, Fan said the law needs to be revised to better meet the demands of the market economy and ongoing judicial reform under new circumstances.

Fan made the remarks at a national seminar on civil procedural law held yesterday in Beijing.

Huang Songyou, a civil division chief with the Supreme People's Court, shared Fan's view.

"Problems that have arisen in the market economy are challenging the current civil procedure law and regulations," he said.

The major problem of the law is that regulations on evidence, the enforcement of verdicts and the time limits for trials are too general for handling some complicated cases.

Late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's historical south tour, which put the nation's reform and opening up move in the fast lane, took place in 1992, one year after the Civil Procedure Law came into force.

Some of the regulations of the law such as the rules of evidence are too general and simple for judges to apply, Huang complained. They should be more specific and practical, he said. He said the future revision of the law should not only suit economic development but also offer more legal support for the country's ongoing judicial reform.

Some of these reform measures in civil trials are supported by judicial interpretation in the Supreme People's Court rather than the current civil procedure law.

The National People's Congress, the country's top legislative body, empowers the Supreme People's Court to work out judicial interpretations to guide the lower courts when there is a legal loophole or no relevant law.

The two-day seminar, which attracted more than 70 scholars of civil procedural law from across the country, discussed the problems of the existing law and possible solutions to them.