A Study On The System Of Civil Complaint Letter And Visit

The concept of letters and visits began in the early 1950s. It is the important window and position for the party and government to propagate principles and policies,to deeply understand social conditions and public opinions and to promptly resolve social conflicts. It has played a positive role in responding people’s emergency,difficulties, anxiety and hope and inmaintaining social stability. At the same time, we should also see some unreasonable places of the current petition system. For example, this petition, which is a public expression, is unlimited abused. The right to petition is hugely magnified. Over-reliance on the petiton makes the correct positioning of the petition system itself increasingly blurred and even has deterioration tendency. Letters and visits relating to civil lawsuits means the lawsuits which were judged by the People’s Court were presented through petition again. In this case, the Court is the main body to process,and assume the basic function of the petition system in accordance with existing policies and regulations. As more and more social conflicts in the form of cases enter into the field of justice, there has been the status of intertwining litigation with letters and visits, and the situation of coexistence of inner legal treatment and outer solutions. Letters and visits relating to civil lawsuits have low threshold, arbitrariness and no time constraints. It can be put forward at any time repeatedly. The cost is limited to the time cost of the petitioners, resulting in that some people believe in petition not law, petition while litigation, and continue to petition after litigation. These issues are very prominent, and bring great pressure to the Court. The Court’s normal trial level system is destroyed. The judicial authority、impartiality and public trust of the court verdict has been questioned. In order to further research this problem, in this paper, I will connect my work practice and focus on letters and visits relating to civil lawsuits mainly from the concept, feature, causes, the status quo of letters and visits relating to civil lawsuits. I think the existence and development of this system having its theoretical basis, historical and cultural roots and realistic basis. The paper will put forward some proposals to improve China’s letters and visits relating to civil lawsuits system,for the case of its conflict with the basic theory and value of civil procedure law.The paper divides into five chapters. In chapter one, Author gives a clear conception and origin of the petition system, points out the academic recognition of this system,and then clear the basic connotation of the Letters and visits relating to civil lawsuits, also defines the scope of the study of this paper. In chapter two, Author recognizes the Letters and visits relating to civil lawsuits from the historical and geographical perspective used by a comparative study method. This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part describes the formation and evolution from the perspective of the historical development, and describes the nature of the litigation petition system that new China established; the second part compares it with similar systems abroad for advanced experience, such as the parliamentary ombudsman system in Sweden, the UK and other countries and complaints commissioner system in New Zealand, Australia, and China’s Hong Kong. The third chapter of paper expounds causes and functions of litigation petition system. It explains three reasons for existence of litigation petition from the root of the country’s political and cultural reasons, the judicial system defect and social background. And litigation petition has three functions in political, social and judicial fields. In chapter four, Author describes the realities and problems of this system. This chapter is divided into three parts. Firstly, the amount of the current civil litigation petition are in the height of the status quo; secondly, as a research reference to litigation petition through the introduction of the operation of a primary court, reveals litigation petition facing the functional deterioration problem; and finally, the chapter analyzes that the current litigation petition system has conflicts with civil res judicata theory, the value of procedural justice and efficiency value. In the fifth chapter, Author gives some suggestions for the reform of the civil litigation petition system. This chapter is divided into four parts. Part one points out the basic ideas of reform, including the three current theories of litigation petition system:to cancel,strengthen or weaken it. In this paper, Author adopts to weakening it and to keep the change.It also explores that litigation petition should be separated with civil retrial. Part two proposes to build the legal operating mechanism of litigation petition, including separating "lawsuits" and "visits", the diversification of civil dispute resolution mechanisms, the ending mechanism of litigation petition and the improvement of the legal system. Part three to four discuss some actual proposals,such as the establishment of a civil retrial, and as well as forced counsel system in civil retrials. Author hopes all these will consummate the existing civil litigation petition system to further promote legal civilization.