Research On The Representative Action Of China

With the deepening of Chinese reform and fast development of the market economy, people are more widely and closely related, which results in the massiveness and complexity of the disputes like some developed countries. To face this kind of group dispute, the legislator included and specified Representative Action in Chinese Civil Procedure Law amended in 1991 on the basis of the judicial practice and the learning of the American Class Action and the Japanese Selection of the Party. However, unexpected by the legislators and scholars, the Representative Action does not operate efficiently with the system seldom used by the court to solve the group dispute and the legislative resources seriously wasted. Several factors lead to this situation: on the one hand, the deficient legislation with regard to the Representative Action is too abstract and limits the function of the system fundamentally; on the other hand, the complexity of the group disputes during the transitional period of China which covers the civil and administrative areas exceeds the capability of the system; in addition, the unscientific administrative model of the court and lack of judicial independence makes the application of Representative Action more difficult. Therefore, with the methodology of comparative analysis and practical analysis, on the basis of analyzing legislation with respect to the Chinese Representative Action and researching several typical group litigations abroad, this thesis aims at putting forward the specific suggestions on how to improve and perfect the Representative Action of ChinaThe thesis is divided into three parts as follows:Part one, analysis of Chinese Representative Action. Firstly, a general summarization is made on the legislative background, relevant articles, the procedures, concept and the characteristics of the Representative Action; Secondly, combined with the judicial practice, a simple description concerning the application of the system is made; lastly, based on the reflection of the system itself and the whole social background, a conclusion is made on the fundamental causes which lead to the inefficient application of the Representative Action. Part two: research of typical group litigations abroad. Several typical group litigations, including the American Class Action, German Verbandsklage and Japanese Selection of the Party, shall be analyzed and researched with focus on the concept, characteristics and practical situation thereof. Through the comparison, we can draw some lessons and inspirations so as to improve the group litigation system of our country.Part three: the suggestions on how to improve and perfect the Representative Action of China. On the basis of the above research and study, specific suggestions shall be given on how to improve and perfect the Representative Action of China.