China should be vigilant about the growing abuse of process in
court cases both at home and abroad, and actively look for judicial
counter-measures, experts said yesterday.
The abuse of process refers to one party in a civil case who,
out of an illegal motive or purpose, makes use of the lawful right
to bring a malicious case. Such cases are on the rise in and out of
China, Gao Zongze, executive member of the board of China Law
Society, said at the International Conference on Abuse of Process
which opened yesterday in Kunshan, east China's Jiangsu
Province.
Abuse of the right of action, the right of withdrawing an
action, malicious application for the maintenance of property, and
action to deceit, are all considered as process abuses, according
to experts.
One case in point is the Foxconn lawsuit which occurred in early
July, in which two reporters from the China Business News
were sued for 30 million yuan (US$3.8 million) for libel.
The plaintiff, the Hongfujin Precision Industry Co, petitioned
for the preservation of property and the court in Shenzhen sealed
the land, cars and savings of the defendants. The parties settled
the case in September.
Experts argued that in the case, not only was the wrong party
sued, the amount claimed excessive, but also the preservation
measures, which caused difficulties to the lives of the defendants,
were beyond the purpose of the system of litigant preservation.
Wu Zhaoxiang, a judge from the Supreme People's Court of China,
and also a member of the 17 Chinese participants, said that with
rapid economic growth and better protection of human rights, more
Chinese have learnt how to protect their rights legally. But at the
same time, abuse of process had become more prominent as well.
"Such abuse wastes limited judicial resources and is also
detrimental to the rights of the other party," he said. "It
violates the principle that the court should protect legitimate
rights of all."
However, the abuse exists not only in domestic civil
proceedings, but also in international civil proceedings. Some of
these international cases are highly politically sensitive.
A large number of cases have been filed in US courts against
foreign governments and their officials for the political purpose
of swaying public opinion rather than for actually obtaining
redress, said Thomas Peele, senior partner of the US Baker and
McKenzie law firm, one of the eight foreign experts at the
meeting.
He recalled a case in which a member of Falun Gong sued a
government official in 2004. In the case, still pending in court,
plaintiffs have indicated that they would not even pursue their
claims for damages if the court would just issue a default
declaratory judgment against the defendant for the alleged
wrongs.
"Clearly, it is the declaration that the plaintiffs want, not
damages," Peele said, adding that certain aspects of the US
procedure make it possible for default judgment to be entered with
less scrutiny than one unfamiliar with US legal processes might
expect.
Gao said that the excessive expansion of jurisdiction by
domestic judicial organs over alien defendants, simple procedures
to bring cases to court, and the default judgment system made such
international abuse possible in some countries.
To cope with the growing abuse, experts suggested that China
should take judicial counter-measures such as strengthening reviews
for initiation proceedings and burden the party that abuses the
process with litigation fees, attorney fees and other costs.
"Such measures will better protect the rights of all parties
instead of restraining them," Gao said.
More international exchanges and co-operation are also needed
for the development of a common standard for "the abuse of
process", experts said.
(China Daily December 12, 2006)