On The Perfection Of Minor Procedure In China

The new Civil Procedural Law at the first time provided small claim procedures in2012. This provision is a breakthrough in the legislation, which plays an important role in and provides legal foundation for swifter resolution of disputes and judicial popularisation.However, only one provision is not adequate for the regulation of small claims and thus judicial conflicts were caused. Therefore, the Supreme People’s Court enacted Supreme People’s Court’s Understanding Relating to the Application of Civil Procedure Law of the Public of China which detailed the provision regulating small claims, thus guided the application of small claims procedure in judicial practice. The Understanding makes the small claim procedure more operative and feasible in judicial application, which is an obvious progress. Nevertheless, there are also some drawbacks relating to various aspects including small claim procedure’s virtue, legislative mode, the right to choose the proper procedure, hearing procedures, and remedy procedures. These drawbacks caused a number of problems and obstacles in the resolutions of relevant cases by using small claim procedure in judicial practice. As a result, coming up with relevant measures to improve small claim procedure on the basis of learning from the other countries, is the priority.This paper starts with a brief analysis of small claim procedure in two aspects: the features and value of small claim procedure, and the comparison between small claim procedure and simple procedure. Secondly, the current status of small claim procedure will be analysed. Then, from the prospective of comparative law, the other countries’ and regions’ small claim procedures will be analysed in the following aspects: legislative mode, application scope, starting procedure, hearing procedure, and enforcement. Finally,suggestions in improving small claim procedure relating to legislative mode, starting procedures, hearing procedures, remedy procedures and enforcement, will be provided in order to contribute to the development of small claim procedure in China.