It was announced on Monday that a new regulation to cut down time spent on the administration of foreign civil and business lawsuits will come into force on March 1.
The regulation, another important part of China's judicial reform, aims to increase justice and efficiency, to raise China's judicial authority and credibility and to create a legal environment which better suits China's membership of the World Trade Organization, said Wan Exiang, vice-president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC), in Beijing Monday at a press conference.
Legal organs responsible for new regulations
The regulations say that the first trial of foreign civil and commercial lawsuits will be the responsibility of the administration of the courts of the economic and technological development zones approved by the State Council; the intermediate courts of provincial and autonomous regional capitals and the municipalities; the intermediate courts of special economic zones and major cities; other intermediate courts designated by the SPC; and higher courts.
The administrative limits of the above-mentioned intermediate courts will be decided by local higher courts, according to the regulation.
The regulation points out that disputes over the first settlement made by a court of an economic and technological development zone approved by the State Council will be handed over to the local intermediate court.
Scope of new regulation
The regulation will cover such cases as foreign contracts and tort disputes; letter of credit disputes; appeals for withdrawal, admission and enforcement of international arbitral settlement; examination of cases concerning the effectiveness of concerned arbitral articles; and appeals for admission and enforcement of settlement made by foreign courts.
The regulation will not cover border trade disputes between China and foreign countries, or foreign real estate issues and property rights issues.
The administration of civil and commercial disputes with Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan will come under this regulation, says the regulation.
It also says that higher courts will carry out supervision of the administration of foreign civil and commercial disputes, and any acceptance by unauthorized courts will be handed over to authorized courts.
Cases accepted before March 1 will continue to be dealt with by the courts accepting those cases, according to the regulation.
Statistics show that from 1979 to October of 2001, China's courts at various levels dealt with 23,340 foreign, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan civil and commercial lawsuits.
(People?s Daily February 26, 2002)
