The Research Of American Federal Civil Plausibility Pleading Standard

In America, civil pleading standard is the starting point of the civil pleading procedure and the first threshold for plaintiff to cross into the court. In1938, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure established lenient notice pleading, which had been firmly upheld by the Supreme Court. However, in2007Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and2009Ashcroft v. Iqbal, the Supreme Court re-explained the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure8(a)(2) and introduced the plausibility pleading standard which is completely different from the notice pleading. This caused an uproar in American academia, judicial circles and the legislative sector, leading to a lot of controversial theoretical issues. In essence, plausibility pleading is a new tool for judges to strengthen the judicial review of the case. It adapts to the reality of the development of modern litigation and is valuable. But it has some defects such as vague content and hindering plaintiff’s access to justice in the case of asymmetric information. To improve the American federal civil plausibility pleading standard is of great significance to ensure that both the plaintiff and the defendant can access to justice and to safeguard the interests of the court hearing.This paper uses the method of historical analysis, case analysis and value analysis. Firstly introduce the history of American federal civil pleading. Secondly specificly analyze the content and features of the plausibility pleading put forward by Twombly and Iqbal. Then by the exhibition of American academia, the legislative sector and judicial circles’controversy of the new standard, reveal the value and application problem of the plausibility pleading. Next propose the improvements combined the theory of legal components of the facts. Finally returning to China, discuss the significance of claiming specific facts and the problem of prosecution standard in our country as well as how to sovle the problem.