On The Perfection Of Civil Pretrial Procedure In China

All countries are facing the pressure of the conflict between the number of cases and the number of judges,and are carrying out judicial system reforms.Among them,the reform of pretrial procedures plays an important role in improving litigation efficiency and reducing the number of cases.In recent years,China has carried out case registration system reform and judge post system reform for the people and improve the quality of justice.However,as the number of cases has increased rapidly,the number of judges has decreased,which has led to a conflict between the number of cases and the number of judges in China.Studying civil pretrial procedures can help ease this pressure,introducing the concept,features,development trends,functions and value pursuits of pretrial procedures.Pretrial procedures are born to improve litigation efficiency,and in their development,they have also acquired the function of terminating cases.In addition,pretrial procedures also have the important function of procedural triage.The value pursuit of pretrial procedures is based on the values of procedural justice and litigation efficiency.The content of pretrial procedures is extensive,mainly focusing on the independence of pretrial procedures,defense invalidity,pretrial mediation,and separation of complex and simple cases.First,the independence of pretrial procedures is the premise and guarantee for the existence of pretrial procedures.The independence of pretrial procedures includes the independence of status and the hosting subject.There are different hosting subjects in different countries.The United States has pretrial judges,Germany has conciliation judges and mediators,and other subjects cooperate with the hosting subjects following the concept of consensual justice.China’s pretrial procedures lack independence,and it is necessary to ensure the independent status of pretrial procedures,establish a hosting subject,and separate pretrial procedures from trial procedures.Second,pleading procedure is the core of pretrial procedures.To promote the defendant’s response,various countries have proposed defense invalidity.The United States makes American-like default judgement and summary judgments,and Germany conducts review in the matter.In China,defense invalidity is refined,the defendant is prohibited from denying the allegations made in the answer,and if the defendant unreasonably refuses to submit an answer,it is considered an admission of the plaintiff’s evidence,rather than an admission of the plaintiff’s claim.Defense invalidity has a significant impact on the parties rights,and it should be applied prudently in conjunction with the judge’s right of interpretation.Third,pretrial mediation is a way to terminate cases.The United States has offer of judgement rule,and Germany has extrajudicial mediation and judicial mediation(conciliation judge system).Sufficient pleading procedure and the discovery of evidence can increase the chances of pretrial mediation,and the construction of an intelligent database can improve the efficiency of pretrial mediation.Fourth,the intelligence of separation of complex and simple cases is the focus of attention nowadays.Various countries use the number of litigation claims,the type of case,and the complexity of the case as standards for separation of complex and simple cases.Different countries have different models of separation of complex and simple cases,such as the United States’ intelligent diversion system and Germany’s electronic litigation agents.China can combine elementary-based trial with separation of complex and simple cases and construct a big data separation of complex and simple cases mechanism.