| China’s Civil Procedure Law was amended in 2021 to add the right of parties to object to the conversion of small claims procedures,and there are still problems such as unbalanced remedies,chaotic internal relief systems,lax rules for conversion procedures,different standards for reviewing objections,and mixed or misplaced paths for objection remediation.It is necessary to optimize this mechanism under the guidance of the principles of proportionality,procedural justice,and efficiency,and effectively clarify the identification standards for the conversion of small claims procedures,optimize the substantive examination procedures,refine the application standards of the procedures,and improve the objection relief mechanism.The main content of this article is divided into four parts.The first part,The Institutional Positioning of the Right of Objection in Small Claims Procedure Conversion.The right to object in the conversion of small claims procedures refers to the right of the parties to believe that the case should not be subject to small claims procedures when the court uses small claims procedures to hear a case based on professional public authority,and then submits a different opinion to the people’s court and requests that the procedure be converted into a summary procedure or an ordinary procedure.The objection to the conversion of small claims procedures,together with the reconsideration,appeal and retrial in China’s Civil Procedure Law,constitute a party relief system for civil litigation rights.Objections have the character of trial supervision,and courts usually deal with them by means of written review,which is a weak procedural remedy.As a low-cost in-litigation remedy,the right to convert objections in small claims proceedings has the value of protecting the parties’ right to sue and restricting the court’s power,which meets the requirements of litigation economy.The second part,Objections to the Conversion of Small Claims Proceedings.Current legislation only allows parties to challenge small claims proceedings before the hearing.In order to further protect the right to object and the legitimacy of the procedure,the parties shall be allowed to provide sufficient facts and evidence to raise objections again at the litigation trial stage.In the conversion of small claims procedures,the conditions for the parties to raise an objection shall be that the case does not meet the statutory requirements for clear facts,or that it does not meet the requirements of simple monetary payments in civil cases where the relationship between rights and obligations is clear,the dispute is not large,and the subject amount is less than 50% of the average annual salary of employed persons in the previous year in each province,autonomous region,or municipality directly under the Central Government.Objections may be made in writing or orally.The third part,Review of Objections to the Conversion of Small Claims Proceedings.The review procedure mainly includes issues such as confirming whether the objection meets the statutory requirements,determining whether the case is applicable to small claims procedures,and determining whether the case is not controversial.People’s courts should earnestly clarify the criteria for determining the conversion of small claims procedures into summary or ordinary procedures,uniformly standardize the review process for "substantive disputes," and refine the applicable standards for small claims procedures.Shift from a simple "standard theory" to a substantive simple standard,and truly include cases with small amounts,simple facts,and little controversy into small claims procedures.People’s courts shall pay attention to the work of collating the focus of disputes before trial and exchanging evidence.Always focus on whether the conflict between the parties may further intensify.The fourth part,Handling of parties’ objections in the conversion of small claims proceedings.If the objection is established,the court shall promptly change the litigation procedure in the form of a "decision" and use summary or ordinary litigation procedures to hear the case.Where the court rejects the objection,it shall likewise adopt the method of "decision".Based on the consideration of the current remedy dilemma of small claims procedures,the jurisprudence of small claims procedures to transform opposition remedies is reconstructed.According to the principle of proportionality,the application of the small claims conversion objection procedure should ensure that the damage caused by public power to the private interest subject shall not exceed the necessary limit,and the parties’ procedural rights and interests shall be expanded by means of appropriate and balanced remedies.In accordance with the requirements of the principle of efficiency,full consideration should be given to the functional positioning of the small claims procedure itself,so as to use lower costs to exert the effectiveness of remedies without derogating from the basic procedural rights and interests.The principle of correspondence between the remedy mechanism and the function of the system requires that the remedies for the rights of the parties be appropriate to avoid the negative effects caused by excessive remedies.Practical operational principles and the principle of secondary remedies require that small claims procedures have some relief for the parties’ right of objection in terms of procedural structure,truly exert their functional utility,and effectively protect the procedural rights of the parties.Establish objection as the main remedy for small claims proceedings,and retrial as an auxiliary remedy,ensuring rights while taking into account trial efficiency.The decision to dismiss the objection shall allow the parties to apply for reconsideration as a remedy for the right to object in small claims proceedings.In order to more fully protect the parties’ right to object,the parties should be allowed to apply to the people’s court at a higher level for reconsideration of the decision to reject the objection. |
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