A Tentative Study On Application Of Good Faith In Civil Procedure

Many legal provisions have been perfected with the amendment of Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China in 2012.Within the amendment,the most highlighted part was the establishment of the principle of good faith.The article 13(1) in the amended Civil Procedure Law stipulates:"civil action should abide by the principle of good faith." Since then the principle of good faith became a basic principle of Civil Procedure Law,with which the goal of equity and efficiency can be better achieved.In the real litigious activities,those circumstances which violate the principle of good faith often occur.For instance,the parties often ignore and delay the term of adducing evidence, they even present their evidence in court on purpose;the parties utilizes the rule of withdrawal of petition and jurisdiction objection to put off the litigation and to hinder the other part;the witnesses make perjury or deny to appear in court;the judges make judgment abruptly,which compel the parties accept the judgment without sufficient assertion and defense.All theses behaviors are against the principle of good faith.The violation to the principle of good faith will lead to litigation delay,damage the equity of judgments and influence the efficiency of litigation,which all hamper the achievement of aims and values of Civil Procedure Law.Thus,the principle of good faith was established in Civil Procedure Law to improve the above mentioned problems.As a matter of fact,the principle of good faith has already been confirmed in civil substantial law especially in the law of obligation for it is closely relevant to people’s life.However,in Civil Procedure Law,the time of establishing the principle of good faith is relatively late and its words are fuzzy,which always lead to the obscure and difficult to apply in real application.From the way of application of the principle of good faith and rule of law,I will study the legal basis of applying the principle of honesty and credibility in civil litigation.Then I will combine some foreign legal systems with domestic institution to research the scope of applying the principle of good faith.After above questions are studied,I will focus on domestic problems on applying the principle of honesty and credibility and strive for some measures to improve and perfect them.