Research On Summary Judgment Of Pretrial Procedure

Summary judgment is the unique procedure in common law countries. As the key mechanism for the pretrial procedure, summary judgment plays a special filterative role in handling non-contentious cases of civil procedure. When civil crisis brought about by the phenomenon of "Litigation Explosion" overwhelming the world, the summary judgment in common law countries now has wide application, working effectively in civil pretrial procedure.In such a special era, it has attracted great attention from the academic circle and the practice circle on how to ensure fair trials and improve the efficiency of procedure by means of the pre-trial procedures. By exploration and research on the summary judgment system in common law countries, a better understanding will be achieved and thus attributes greatly to establish certain systems for civil pretrial procedure in China.The thesis includes four parts.The first part gives an introduction. It defines the summary judgment by comparing several other definitions. On the basis of it, the author discusses the features of summary judgment, elaborating its value orientation by focusing on procedural justice and procedural benefits. Al last, the function of the summary judgment is also explored here in this part from four aspects including filtrating non-contentious cases.The second part explores the summary judgment system in a historical perspective. It first traces its origination in Great Britain, and describes the development and the present situation of summary judgment in Great Britain and American respectively, focusing on its wide application and historical background in America in 1980s. Then it offers examples of legislation in Great British, America and Hog Kong, to illustrate the practical regulations of summary judgment applied in above-mentioned countries or district. At last, the thesis further explores the summary judgment in these common law countries, trying to find out the institutional background to it.The third part focuses on the current civil procedure in China. It first introduces the legislation concerning civil procedure in China, with a detailed description of the pretrial procedure of the first trial and the legislation of judgment system. From a static perspective, it clarifies the relationship among the trial procedure in court of the first trial of a civil case, the procedures of pre-trial preparations and the judgment system. Then, guided by modern conception of civil procedure, by analyzing the problems existed in China's civil legislation and its application, the author proposes a focus shift from trial procedure in court to the procedures of pre-trial preparations, as a lesson from the failures in reforming civil trial patterns in China.The fourth part tries to offer innovative imagination. It explores the current situation of pretrial procedure in China on the basis of its necessity, evaluating the importance of establishing summary judgment system to reconstruct the civil procedures system in China. At last, the author puts forward some practical proposals on establishing summary judgment system in China. The proposals cover five major aspects including the standard and the application of the summary judgment.