Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (2007)

At its 30th Meeting, the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress decided to make the following amendments to the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China:

1. The second paragraph of Article 103 is revised to read, "With respect to a unit that commits any one of the acts specified above, the people's court may impose a fine on its principal heads or the persons who are held actually responsible for the act; it may detain them if they still refuse to perform the obligation to provide assistance; and it may, in addition, put forward a judicial proposal to the supervisory organ or the relevant organ that disciplinary sanctions are imposed on them."

2. The first paragraph of Article 104 is revised to read, "A fine on an individual shall be not more than RMB 10,000 yuan. A fine on a unit shall be not less than 10,000 yuan and not more than 300,000 yuan."

3. Article 178 is revised to read, "If a party to an action considers that there is error in a legally effective judgment or written order, he may apply to the people's court at the next higher level for a retrial; however, execution of the judgment or written order shall not be suspended."

4. The first paragraph of Article 179 is changed to be Article 179 and is revised to read, "If an application made by a party meets any one of the following conditions, the people's court shall retry the case:

"(1) There is new evidence which is sufficient to set aside the original judgment or written order;

"(2) There is a lack of evidence for establishing the basic facts ascertained in the original judgment or written order;

"(3) The main evidence for the facts ascertained in the original judgment or written order is falsified;

"(4) The main evidence for the facts ascertained in the original judgment or written order is not cross-examined;

"(5) The party to a lawsuit, due to objective cause, cannot collect the evidence necessary for adjudicating the case and has applied, in writing, to the people's court for investigation and collection of such evidence, but the people's court fails to investigate and collect the evidence;

"(6) There is definite error in the application of law to the making of the original judgment or written order;

"(7) In violation of the provisions of law, jurisdiction is erroneously exercised;

"(8) Formation of the trial organization is unlawful or the adjudicator that should withdraw has not done so;

"(9) The person incapable of judicial act is not represented by a statutory agent, or the party that should participate in the litigation fails to do so for reasons not attributable to himself or his legal representative;

"(10) The party's right to debate is deprived of in violation of the provisions of law;

"(11) The default judgment in the absence of the party is made where a summons is not served on the party;

"(12) Some claims are omitted or excessive claims are confirmed in the original judgment or written order; or

"(13) The legal document on the basis of which the original judgment or written order is abrogated or revised."

"The people's court shall retry a case, where violation of the statutory procedure may prevent correct judgment or written order from being made or the adjudicator, in the course of trial, commits embezzlement, accepts bribes, engages in malpractices for personal gain, or perverts the law in making the judgment or written order."

5. One article is added to be Article 180, which reads, "Where a party applies for a retrial, he shall submit a written application for retrial and other materials. The people's court shall, within five days after receiving the application, serve the duplicate of the written application for retrial on the other party. The other party shall submit written opinions within 15 days after receiving the said duplicate; and failure on the part of the other party to submit the written opinions shall not prevent the review by the people's court. The people's court may require the applicant and the other party to supplement the relevant materials and inquire about relevant matters."

6. The second paragraph of Article 179 is changed to be Article 181 and is revised to read, "The people's court shall complete the review of the written application for retrial within three months after receiving it, and shall rule to retry the case if the application meets the conditions specified in one of the subparagraphs of Article 179 of this Law; otherwise, it shall rule to reject the application. Under special circumstances where the period of time for review needs to be extended, the matter shall be subject to approval by the president of the court.

"If a case is ruled to be retried upon application by a party to the action, the case shall be retried by an intermediate people's court or a people's court at a higher level. If a case is ruled to be retried by the Supreme People's Court or a higher people's court, the case shall be retried by the court that rules in favor of retrial or it may be handed over to any other people's court or the people's court that originally tried the case for retrial."

7. Article 182 is changed to be Article 184 and is revised to read, "A party that intends to apply for a retrial shall submit an application within two years after the judgment or written order becomes legally effective; if after the lapse of two years, the legal document on the basis of which the original judgment or written order was made is abolished or revised or in the course of trial, the adjudicator is found to have committed embezzlement, accepted bribes, engaged in malpractices for personal gain, or perverted the law in making the judgment or written order, the party shall submit the application within three months after he comes to know or should know the fact."

8. Article 185 is changed to be Article 187 and is revised to read, "If the Supreme People's Procuratorate discovers that a legally effective judgment or written order made by a people's court at any level, or if a people's procuratorate at a higher level discovers that a legally effective judgment or written order made by a people's court at a lower level, meets the conditions specified in one of the subparagraphs of Article 179 of this Law, the Supreme People's Procuratorate or the people's procuratorate at a higher level shall file a protest.

"If a local people's procuratorate at any level discovers that a legally effective judgment or written order made by a people's court at the same level meets the conditions specified in one of the subparagraphs of Article 179 of this Law, the said people's procuratorate shall request the people's procuratorate at a higher level to file a protest with the people's court at the same level."

9. Article 186 is changed to be Article 188 and is revised to read, "The people's court that accepts a case with respect to which a people's procuratorate has filed a protest shall, within 30 days after receiving the protest, make a written order for retrial; if the judgment or written order concerned meets the conditions specified in one of the first five subparagraphs in the first paragraph of Article 179 of this Law, it may hand the case over to the people's court at the next lower level for retrial."

10. Article 207 is changed to be Article 201, and the first paragraph is revised to read, "Legally effective judgments or written orders in civil cases, as well as the parts of judgments or written orders that relate to property in criminal cases, shall be executed by the people's court of first instance or by the people's court at the same level as the people's court of first instance, where the property subject to execution is located."

11. One article is added as Article 202, which reads, "If a party or an interested party considers that the execution is in violation of legal provisions, it may raise a written objection to the people's court that is responsible for the execution. If a party or an interested party raises a written objection, the people's court shall review the written objection within 15 days after receiving it. If the reasons for objection are tenable, the people's court shall rule to cancel or put to right the execution; otherwise, it shall rule to reject the objection. If the party or interested party is not satisfied with the ruling, it may apply for reconsideration to the people's court at the next higher level within 10 days after the ruling is served."

12. One article is added as Article 203, which reads, "If the people's court fails to execute a judgment or written order within six months after receiving the application for execution, the person applying for execution may apply to the people's court at the next higher level for execution. Upon review, the people's court at the next higher level may order the original people's court to execute within a specified period of time, or may decide to execute by itself or instruct any other people's court to do it."

13. Article 208 is changed to be Article 204 and is revised to read, "If, in the course of execution, a person not involved in the case raises a written objection to the object subjected to execution, the people's court shall review the written objection within 15 days after receiving it. If the reasons for objection are tenable, the people's court shall rule to suspend the execution; otherwise, it shall rule to reject the objection. If the person not involved in the case or the party is not satisfied with the ruling and considers that there is error in the original judgment or written order, the matter shall be dealt with according to the procedure for trial supervision; and if the objection is irrelevant to the original judgment or written order, the said person or party may bring a lawsuit to a people's court within 15 days after the ruling is served."

14. Article 209 is changed to be Article 205 and the third paragraph is revised to read, "The people's court may, when necessary, establish execution organs."

15. Article 219 is changed to be Article 215, and is revised to read, "The time limit for submission of an application for execution shall be two years. The termination or suspension of the time limit for submission of an application for execution shall be governed by the provisions of law on the termination or suspension of the limitation of action.

"The time limit prescribed in the preceding paragraph shall be calculated from the last day of the period specified in a legal document for performance of the execution. If a legal document specifies performance of the execution in stages, the time limit shall be calculated from the last day of the period specified for each stage of performance. If no period of performance is specified in a legal document, the time limit shall be calculated from the date when the legal document takes effect."

16. Article 220 is changed to be Article 216, and one paragraph is added as the second paragraph, which reads, "If the person subjected to execution fails to fulfill the obligations specified in a legal document and may possibly hide or transfer his property, the executor may immediately take measures for compulsory execution."

17. One article is added as Article 217, which reads, "If a person subjected to execution fails to fulfill the obligations, specified in a legal document, in compliance with the notification for execution, he shall report his property situation existing at the moment and one year before he has received the notification. If he refuses to do so or makes a false report, the people's court may, in light of the seriousness of the case, impose a fine or detention on him, or his legal representative, the principal leading person of the unit concerned or the person directly responsible."

18. One article is added as Article 231, which reads, "If a person subjected to execution fails to fulfill the obligations specified in a legal document, the people's court may adopt, or advise the unit concerned to assist in adoption of, the measure of restricting the person's departure from the country, making records in the credibility system, through the media publishing information about his failure to perform his obligations, or other measures stipulated by law."

19. Chapter XIX, namely, Procedure for Bankruptcy and Debt Repayment of Legal Person Enterprises, is deleted.

This Decision shall go into effect as of April 1, 2008.

The Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China shall be amended correspondingly in accordance with this Decision and promulgated anew.