Prosecutorial Supervision Over Civil Proceedings After The Latest Amendments To The Civil Procedural Law Of China: Problems And Solutions

Carrying out legal supervision over civil proceedings is one of the important functions that prosecutorial organs of China are assigned under the laws of China. Since prosecutorial supervision over civil litigation has been initiated in China over two decades ago, it has been playing a crucial role in safeguarding judicial justice, promoting the people’s livelihood and solving social problems. However, due to flaws in relevant legislations and insufficiency in staffing and supporting institutions, the prosecutorial supervision over civil legal proceedings in China as it is now falls far short of the requirements of the bid to institute the rule of law in China and the demand of the general public.In view of this, this author carried out an empirical study into the prosecutorial supervision in connection with civil litigation in one year-odd period since the newly amended civil procedural law of China came into effect, and on the basis of the study, identifies the problems and underlying factors in China’s prosecutorial supervision in civil cases, and puts forward a number of policy proposals for the purpose of improving and optimizing the practice of prosecutorial supervision.Aside from the introduction and the conclusion, this thesis includes four parts.Chapter 1 deals with the newly amended civil procedural law and the expansion of the power of the prosecution in supervising civil proceedings. This chapter begins with an overview of the nature and functions of civil prosecutorial supervision, and goes on to recount the academic disputes over the existing civil prosecutorial supervision system of China. After that, the chapter reviews the steady expansion of the power of the prosecution in connection with supervision over civil litigation before and after the newly amended civil procedural law came into force. The chapter concludes with an account of macro impacts that the newly amended civil procedural law have on civil prosecutorial supervision.Chapter 2 of the thesis includes an empirical study of the problems faced by the prosecution in connection with supervision over civil cases after the amended civil procedural law became effective. Based on practice of prosecution authorities in Chongqing in the field of supervision over civil proceedings, this chapter elaborates the problems faced by the prosecution, namely, weakened prosecutorial protest and supervision, impeded prosecutorial recommendation for retrials, inadequacy in new supervisory functions and increasing pressure on the prosecution to end litigation.Chapter 3 analyzes the underlying factors behind the problems faced by the prosecution after the latest amendments to the civil procedural law of China. This chapter first looks into the many legislative flaws in connection with the current civil prosecutorial supervision system, then elaborates on the causes of the problems from the perspectives of the shrinking scope of cases eligible for such supervision, the external environment of the civil prosecutorial supervision, the weakening civil prosecutorial supervision, among others.In Chapter 4 are policies and suggestions in connection with enhancing and improving prosecutorial supervision over civil legal proceedings. This chapter begins with an overview of the argument that the supervision must be based on a valid and viable approach under the changed legal system and goes on to put forward a number of suggestions on improving civil prosecutorial supervision from the perspectives of legislation, judicial interpretation and judicial practice.