On The Application Of Small Lawsuit In China

The revised "People’s Republic of China Civil Procedure Law" in2012stipulates thesmall claims procedure. However, China’s legislation about small claims procedure onlyprovides a framework structure. It only generally stipulates the target amount which suitablefor small claims, competent court, the first trial final appeal, and the appeal limitation. Theunique advantages of small claims, namely the simplification of prosecution, convenience ofcourt time, the simplification of court trial procedure, low litigation costs, and so on, are notreflected from our legislation. Only one provision of law seems a bit thin and vague, and thelack of specific procedural rules will undoubtedly result in chaos in judicial practice.Our small claims procedure is a kind of judicial proceedings, which has independent legalstatus and separated from summary procedure. The power of protecting ordinary people is thebasis of small claims system. It provides access to justice for the general public bysimplifying proceedings and reducing litigation costs. In China, it only established the smallclaims procedure rather than establish a sound system of small claims. The improvement of asystem cannot be accomplished in an action. The missing specific procedural rules can beimproved through legislation. Therefore, to improve our country’s small claims procedure, weshould start from the current status of the implementation of small claims procedure; alsocombine with the existing problems in our legislation and practice of the small claimsprocedure. We should also clearly stipulate rules of small claims procedures and specificrange of application. On the basis of the first trial final appeal, establishing remedy procedureof small claims and give parties procedure option are necessary to guarantee parties ownsufficient litigious right and realize the popularization of justice.