| Recognition and enforcement of foreign court judgments have always been an important part of international legal assistance,and have always been the difficulty in international civil litigation.As the second-best option for recognition and enforcement of foreign court judgments in the absence of a treaty,the principle of reciprocity emerges from time to time and has become an important principle in international civil and commercial exchanges.Due to the huge differences in the legislative systems and judicial systems of various countries,the inherent shortcomings of the principle of reciprocity have become increasingly prominent in the process of world economic integration,and have even become a tool for reciprocal retaliation between countries and other countries,gradually deviating from the original intention of the principle of reciprocity.Based on this,countries have tried to reform the existing principle of reciprocity.Some countries have explicitly abolished the requirement of reciprocity through legislation.Although some countries have retained the principle of reciprocity,they generally use lenient interpretations or impose exceptions when they apply.In practice,China has adhered to the factual reciprocity standard for a long time.Principled legislation combined with overly strict judicial interpretations has created a deadlock in cooperation in the field of recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.With the change of China’s international role,the Supreme People’s Court has started to release positive signals of judicial activity.It has issued a series of judicial interpretive documents and a three-tiered system of presumptive reciprocity within ASEAN countries,legal reciprocity within the “Belt and Road” countries,and factual reciprocity in the remaining countries has been initially established.But the positive impact of this change is very limited.Difficulty in starting the reciprocal relationship,heavy burdens on the judges’ identification,and the improper exchange of information are still practical problems that hinder the flow of global judgments,which have brought new challenges to the system design of theprinciple of reciprocity in China.The purpose of this article is to take the legal improvement of the principle of reciprocity as the core entry point in the new situation,while using law-related theories to comprehensively analyze the causes and trends of reciprocity choices,while examining the constraints and development trends of the principle of reciprocity in detail using typical cases at home and abroad.It provides a new solution for the construction of a new type of reciprocal relationship in China.In order to prevent our court judgments from becoming increasingly isolated in the international community,in the future,China should adopt an open mindset of "do what you want and apply to others first",while preserving legal reciprocity in legislation,and comprehensively implement presumptive reciprocity in practice.Specifically,when judging whether the two countries have reciprocal relations,China should not focus on whether there is a precedent for cooperation between the two sides.Instead,we should first determine that the two countries have reciprocity.Only other countries will refuse to recognize and enforce our court judgments in the future.Then confirm whether the mutually beneficial relationship between the two parties persists.In addition,the full implementation of presumptive reciprocity should also start to implement a series of supporting measures such as establishing a bank of judgment recognition and enforcement cases,clarifying the burden of proof on the principle of reciprocity,formulating judicial interpretation of cascade reciprocity,and improving the recognition and enforcement of reciprocity-related laws to provide a smooth operation of the principle of reciprocity Practical legal guarantees,so that to help our country creates a good international environment for the in-depth development of foreign civil and commercial exchanges. |
