China Civil Litigation Reform Issues, Pre-trial Proceedings

In the reform of civil trial model in our country's courts, one important aspect is to emphasize court hearing during the whole process of trial, aimed at overcoming the ever long malpractices such as "making judgment before hearing", a formalism in trial, delay in court trial and etc. Therefore, the reform and improvement of pre-trial procedures in civil actions has become the most concerned issue in both court practice and law theory.In view of trial practice over years, the present situation in court practice is fairly far from reaching the original goal set in the reform. Staring from this point, this paper reviews the history of the system of civil procedures and the regulations for pre-trial procedures in our country and the development of civil procedures in the main legal systems of the world, thus provides a reference for deliberating and coping with the problems in the current pre-trial procedures in our country.On the analysis of the current laws and regulations pertaining to pre-trial procedures and their implementation, this paper holds that the imbalance in rights and obligations between the court and concerned parties represents the most outstanding problem in the pre-trial procedures within the current framework of civil procedures in our country. It points out that, on the premises of seeking for a judicial goal of fairness and efficiency and following the principle of setting up an adversarial system in civil procedures, this imbalance must be rectified, and particularly, by weakening the supreme powers of courts and boosting the motivation of concerned parties during the process.In light of the contradiction arising from the lacking in coordination between the diversified value orientation and the policy and subject of the reform, which used to thwart the effect of the reform, this paper points out that the theory of consistency in social economics should be applied for systematically studying on and working out the ideas, policies, measures and guarantee for system of the reform, thus bringing about the maximum benefits of the reform.