The Supreme People's Court announced yesterday that it will
designate a number of courts to handle commercial cases involving
foreign parties in order to provide a high-quality judicial
environment for foreign investors.
Such courts will include the high courts, intermediate courts in
municipalities and capital cities of provinces and autonomous
regions, special economic zones and cities directly under State
planning, and some courts in economic and technological development
areas in cities.
The Supreme People's Court will also authorize intermediate courts
in other cities if necessary.
"The fundamental goal is to achieve justice and efficiency in
handling cases, enhance the authority of China's rule of law and
create a fine legal environment now that China has entered the World Trade Organization (WTO)," said
Wan Exiang, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, at a
press conference.
However, the new practice, which will be adopted next month, will
not be applicable in cases of border trade, real estate and
violation of intellectual property rights violations involving
foreign parties. Wan explained that this is because border trade
disputes are few, real estate cases are not trade disputes while
intellectual property right disputes have already fallen into the
jurisdiction of specially designated courts.
Initial statistics from the Supreme People's Court indicate that
between 1979 and October last year, courts across China had dealt
with 23,340 civil and commercial cases involving overseas parties.
Sources with the court said that the actual figure could be much
higher.
Grassroots and intermediate courts are authorized to hear
commercial cases involving foreign parties under current
practice.
However, the traditional overlapping of administrative and judicial
divisions has made local courts in China constantly plagued by
local protectionism, an obstacle to the fair handling of cases.
(China
Daily February 26, 2002)