Small Claim Procedure

The scarcity of judicial resources and the public's unlimited demand for it are always one pair of contradictions which is difficult to reconcile. Confronted with the enormous pressure from the cases, all the traditional litigation mechanism is insufficient to deal with all these cases. To enable people to access to the judiciary and the justice with effectiveness, there inevitably shows an objective and necessary tendency of establishing a pluralistic lawsuit mechanism matched with the types of cases. Legal procedure of small claims enters people's horizon under this circumstance and is closely concerned by the experts in the law fields. Small claims procedure has a unique character, charm and solid legal basis; it possesses the incomparable advantages contrasted with a simple procedure and the general procedures. The vitality of the small claims procedure derives from its intrinsic features of being with the people, high efficiency and low-costs. The small claims procedure is not specifically mentioned in China's civil law, but in practice, some of the summary procedure reforms in certain basic courts have shown the characteristics of the small claims. In order to highlight the simple and quick, highly efficient, flexible features and advantages of small claims procedure, it should be separated from the summary procedure and regulated specifically.In this paper, the author makes a scientific analysis of the legal attributes of the small claims, legal elements of procedure, procedure value and mechanism of operation by using comparative studies, normative analysis, empirical analysis and cost-benefit analysis methods so as to echo the query and correct the misunderstanding which exists in the small claims. Simultaneously, the author also makes a further exploration into the social foundation and system requirement of the small claims for China's construction of the small claims from the perspective of the litigation culture, litigation psychology, mass legal appeals and the insufficiencies of the current laws. The author puts forward some macroscopical ideas on the basis for the convenience of furthering the discussion concerned with the small claims and carried on in the academic circles so as to provide some ideas to be used as reference for the further amendment of China's civil procedure law.In addition to the introduction and conclusion, this article consists of five parts: the first part mainly reveals the essence of the small claims procedure by making an analysis of its concept, characteristics and essential attribute. The second part makes an analysis of the legal basis for the existence of the small claims procedure from the perspective of procedural benefit, opportunity to safeguard the litigant "access to justice", the principle of considerable costs, procedure-choosing right and so on. The third part is the theoretical responses to the questions concerned with the small claims procedure, the author thinks that the highly simplified procedures in the small claims does not necessarily harm the judicial concept of justice, the savings of procedural cost does not necessarily lead to increased cost of errors, and no logic connection exists between simplifying procedures and evoked overcharging. The small claims procedure can be used to overcome the insufficiencies existed in traditional litigation. In the fourth part, the author makes a comprehensive investigation of the legislative proceedings and practices of the small claims in United States, Britain, Japan, and Taiwan by employing the comparative study approach and makes an analysis of their similarities and personalities so as to seek the useful ingredients from them for the construction of small claims procedure in China. The fifth part expounds the necessity, the feasibility and some macroscopical ideas occurred on the process of institutional design of establishing the small claims procedure from the perspective of people's demands in the legal life and the shortcomings existed in China's current summary procedures.