China’s Judicial Document Service Abroad System In Civil Or Commercial Matters

With more and more frequent international commercial activities, the number ofinternational civil and commercial litigations is increasing day by day. Service abroadof judicial documents, which is the basis of the international litigation, is the hot issueof both the legislation and judicial practice. Given the difference between the legalsystems of each country, the service abroad mechanisms vary from one country toanother. In order to promote the efficiency of service abroad, each country has madegreat efforts at both the international and domestic levels. There are65contractingcountries entering the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and ExtrajudicialDocuments in Civil or Commercial Matters. European Union has issued the EuropeanService Regulation1348/2001. American countries have entered the Inter AmericanConvention on Letters Rogatory. In addition, countries all over the world have alsoconcluded bilateral judicial assist treaties or agreements and formulated the relevantdomestic laws.China’s service abroad system is constituted by the convention, bilateral treatiesor agreements, and domestic laws. As to the methods of service abroad formulated inthe Hague Service Convention, service through central authority is the priority, andservice through diplomacy and consular, service by mail and electronic ways are thesubstitutes. Due to the various declarations by each contracting country and thedifferences of each bilateral treaties and the vague of domestic legislation, there areplenty of problems occurring in the judicial practices. This Paper takes the situation of Shanghai No.2Intermediate People’s Court for example, explores the status andobstacles of China’s service abroad system, and makes suggestions on improving thesystem.The Paper consists of five chapters. Chapter One defines the scope of serviceabroad on civil or commercial judicial document, and focuses on the service methodsformulated by Hague Service Convention and the declarations made by thecontracting countries. Chapter Two introduces the differences and cooperation amongvarious countries. The Paper compares the systems of Germany, France and Americato reflect the differences and also introduces the cooperation, such as Hague ServiceConvention and bilateral treaties. Chapter Three explores the legal sources of serviceabroad in China and the principles to choose the service mechanisms. Chapter Fourtakes Shanghai No.2Intermediate People’s Court for sample, analyzing the problemsand summarizing the experiences. The last chapter expounds the author’s suggestionson the improvement of China’s service abroad system from the aspects of theoptimization of the current system and practice, lessons from foreign countries, andthe reinforcement of international cooperation.