Challenges Faced By Case-filing Registration System For Civil Actions & Countermeasures

The Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China enacted Opinions on Implementation of Reform of Case-filing Registration System by People's Courts on April 1,2015,which provided a more macro description on concepts about implementation of reform of case acceptance system and designed a creative specific path.Since this moment,there was an explicit legal basis for transforming the case-fling investigation system into case-filing registration system for civil actions in China and a new chapter opened for case-filing work of people's courts.However,there will be a huge resistance and many obstacles during the process of implementing the case-filing registration system,in which the most typical ones include: Stipulations on conditions of prosecution in the current Civil Procedure Law are excessively rigorous.There is confusion between conditions of prosecution and prerequisites of litigation.Investigation on prerequisites of litigation is unavoidable when courts conduct prosecution investigation,so the problem of “difficulty in case filing” can't be solved at root.The conflict between “too many cases & too few personnel” will become more obvious due to a large increase in case filing quantity,which also has a certain tension relation with the “system of limited number of judges”.Due to the unclear concept definition of case filing,it is still unknown whether investigation after case registration will still be the responsibility of the case-filing chamber or will be transferred to other relevant chambers,for which there are no detailed rules or regulations that can provide effective guidance.Oriented deviation caused by public opinion results in people's misunderstanding on the case-filing registration system,due to which some concerned parties believe that a court must conduct registration and case filing so long as they file a lawsuit to the court,regardless of nature and situation of the case.Therefore,some improper litigation behaviors such as malicious litigation and abuse of right of prosecution will emerge,which is a negative phenomenon.In foreign countries,whether countries adopting the Continental Law System or countries adopting the Anglo-American Legal System,stipulations on conditions of prosecution are relatively lenient.In most countries,a concerned party can initiate a proceeding simply by submitting an indictment meeting certain requirements and paying a corresponding amount of case acceptance fee.To implement a real case-filing registration system,China should follow examples of such countries and separate prerequisites of litigation from conditions of prosecution.The most important measure is to revise Article 119 in the current Civil Procedure Law,after which conditions of prosecution only include submission of an indictment meeting certain conditions and payment of case acceptance fee by the plaintiff.As for prerequisites of litigation,such as whether the plaintiff serves as an interested party in a case,whether the case should be governed by the court to which the plaintiff files the case and whether the case is repeatedly prosecuted,should be investigated after case-filing registration,through which the problem of difficulty in prosecution can be solved at root.Meanwhile,as a fundamental right,right of prosecution should be stipulated in the Constitution and included in the scope of Civil Procedure Law as a procedural remedy right.In addition,the reason why case-filing registration system has been operating smoothly in many countries is that there are developed diversified dispute resolution systems and regulation mechanisms against behavior of excessive litigation in such countries,which serve as the prerequisite and a guarantee.However,a supporting mechanism for case-filing registration system is yet to be established in China.Therefore,facing the conflict between the increasing judicial demand and the insufficient judicial resources,China should accelerate the establishment of a diversified dispute resolution system and promote the work of linking litigation and mediation in order to solve a large number of disputes prior to litigation.Meanwhile,courts should prevent and punish improper litigation behaviors such as false litigation and malicious litigation,through which the limited judicial resources can be protected and the healthy and orderly operation of case-filing registration system can thus be ensured.