Research On The Reciprocity Principle In Recognition And Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments In China

Whether a country recognizes and enforces judgments of foreign courts is related to the sovereignty and dignity of the country,and also involves the protection of the private interests of litigants.The principle of reciprocity provides a theoretical basis for the recognition and enforcement of judgments of other countries between equal state subjects.Academia has been dispute concerning the abolition of the principle of reciprocity,however,driven by the wave of economic globalization,the principle of reciprocity is still an important support for judging cross-border flows.The time to give up reciprocity is not yet mature,which may result in a waste of judicial resources and the interests of the parties cannot be effectively guaranteed.The steady implementation of the “Belt and Road” initiative requires the free flow of judgments between countries.On December 27,2019,the Supreme People’s Court issued the "Opinions on the People’s Courts Further Providing Judicial Services and Guarantees for the Construction of the" Belt and Road ",it proposes to adopt a presumed reciprocal judicial attitude and continuously promote the mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments of the International Commercial Court.This is a historic step in China’s previous conservative attitude of reciprocity.On the basis of Nanning’s statement,which adopts a more relaxed presumption of reciprocity for ASEAN countries,it further expands the scope of application of presumption of reciprocity.However,China’s legislation on the principle of reciprocity still has some problems to be solved,such as the unclear distribution of burden of proof,imperfect supporting measures for identifying foreign laws,and narrow scope of non-application of the principle of reciprocity.Moreover,there may be new challenges after the policy comes into effect,which require further research on the principle of reciprocity,change of applicable concepts,and accelerate the improvement of relevant legislation supporting measures,so as to promote the cross-border flow of judgments.First of all,this article starts from the analysis of the basic theory of the principle of reciprocity,and discusses the different identification modes adopted in the application of the principle of reciprocity in the world.Then it makes a comprehensive analysis of China’s current domestic legislation and judicial practice and puts forward the problems in the application of the principle of reciprocity in the field of recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in China.Then,taking the selected foreign representative countries as examples,this paper explores the legislative models and judicial cases of the principle of reciprocity in the field of foreign recognition and implementation,and analyzes whether there is any experience that China can draw lessons from,so as to gain enlightenment.Finally,in order to improve the dilemma of the application of the principle of reciprocity in China and provide impetus for the continuous promotion of the Belt and Road initiative,this paper puts forward strategies to promote the formulation of global conventions,improve the legislation of the principle of reciprocity,strengthen the supporting measures identified by foreign laws and develop the multi-level application mode of reciprocity.