Research On Time Limitation Of The First Trial Of Civil Procedure

Setting deadline for trials and appeals is a unique phenomenon in China's Procedural Law. It is designed by legislators for the purpose of restricting discretion of judges and to promote efficiency of litigation. The present Civil Procedural Law of China and related judicial interpretations by the Highest Court stipulate in detail the time limits of trying in various forms of civil litigations. The author of this paper, from a pragmatic and normative point of view, makes researches and investigations on the practice of the time limits system in civil courts. While discovering problems of the structure and functioning of the system, solutions are also proposed by the author.After a brief introduction of purposes of writing and methodology applied in writing, the author depicts in the first part of the paper the legislative background and theoretical basis of the trial deadline system. Through an analysis of values and conflicts of the system, the author points out that the establishment of the time limits system for trying has its special meanings, considering the peculiar circumstances of contemporary China.In the second part, pragmatic researches are made on the practice of this system via measures of interviews, Questionnaires and data collection, etc. Based upon these materials, the author highlighted the existing problems and possible solutions to such problems.The third part covers the standard litigation procedures of some major legal systems; special emphasis is put on the experiences of these legal systems to ensure the swift tackling of cases, in the absence of a deadline regime. The key issue discussed in this part is whether to retain or to abolish the time limit system in question under the background of a comparison between China and other major legal systems. In the author's point of view, it is not yet appropriate time to abolish the system as a whole in civil litigations. The author ends the paper by a rational reflection of the whole system and by a summary of prerequisites and conditions required for reforming the system, and by proposing a blueprint for perfection of the system.