Dissertation On The Reforms In Civil Trial Supervisory System Of PRC

The civil trial supervisory system refers to procedures through which statutory authorities, organizations and individuals that enjoy the right of trial supervision enforce supervision over errors in effective civil judgments made by people's courts. It is an important system in civil litigations of China, which have significant influences on protection of procedural and substantive rights of litigants, rectification of erroneous judgments and improvement of quality of trials and judges. Given the correlations and discrepancies between civil trial supervisory system and civil retrial system, in this article the author analyzes the structural basis of current civil supervisory system of China and compare it with those of Japan, Germany and France in terms of subjects, causes, times and intervals of retrial initiation as well as jurisdiction and trial scope as to civil retrial, based on the arguments on institutional basis for civil trial supervisory system and structural basis for civil retrial system. . When we summarize the experiences in civil trial supervisory system of China along with the deepening reforms in the trial modes and constant amelioration of the litigious system, it is not difficult to find out that the civil trial supervisory system of China is in a urgent need of reform and improvement. Under the value proposition that civil retrial system should become the procedural safeguard to judicial impartiality and authority, we could find some defects in the civil trial supervisory system of China in terms of legislative guiding ideologies ("seeking truth from fact" and "errors must be rectified") , subjects of initiating retrial (courts and procuratorates) and causes for initiating retrial. With regard to these defects, the author is of the view that, the design of retrial procedures should account for the equal value of substantive justice and procedural justice instead of solely pursuing the objectivity and truth of cases; while endeavoring to cancel the right of court in deciding retrial and limiting the right of procuratorates in appealing for civil rehearing, China should establish a retrial system in which the litigants themselves are subjects of retrials and identify statutory and operable causes for retrial. In the dissertation, the author also contrive a vision for civil retrial of China in the aspects of initiation, acceptance, hearing and adjudication.