Study On The Consumer Public Interest Litigation System In China

Since the ancient times, consumption has been the essential link in our lives. With the continuous development of commodity economy in recent years, the idea of chasing maximum benefits occupies producers’minds. Driven by interests, the infringements in consumption activities occur constantly, and show a trend of group. Against this general background, the Civil Procedure Law, the Consumer Protection Law and other Chinese laws are brought into the scope of the operation of public interest litigation. When confronted by the production operators in strong position, the legalized organs and the relevant organizations shall sue them as a plaintiff, which breaks through the traditional theory of the qualification of proper party. Consumer public interest litigation in our country, however, is still in its initial period, and there are many blanks in terms of specific application. As a consequence, we are urged to build a complete legal framework of consumer public interest litigation, basing on the combination of foreign advanced experience and the practice of law in our country.This paper is divided into four parts, and the author will elaborate it from the following four aspects, "an overview of consumer public interest litigation," "the introduction and evaluation of Japanese consumer public interest litigation," "the analysis of the present situation of consumer public interest litigation in China," and "the perfection of China’s consumer public interest litigation".In the first part, the author primarily discusses how consumer public interest litigation came in to being, under the background that traditional consumer litigation is too weak to solve the disputes brought by the gradually fiercer market competition. Then the author analyzes the connotation and extension of consumer public interest litigation in our country’s laws.The second part demonstrates Japanese consumer public interest litigation in detail, which includes the system of designating litigants and consumer group litigation system. The researches on their development courses, types, and litigation procedures could provide ideas for the construction of China’s consumer public interest litigation system.In the third part, through the analysis of the current situation of consumer public interest litigation in our country, the author find out the deficiency of the consumer public interest litigation in the qualification of the prosecution and the types and procedures of litigation. Afterwards the author puts forward ways of perfection to settle specific issues.In the fourth part, considering the problems mentioned in the third part about consumer public interest litigation, the author proposes the concrete plan from several aspects, including the expansion of the plaintiff qualification scope, clarifying litigation types, the perfection of burdening litigation expense system, the reasonable distribution of the burden of proof, the appropriate expansion of judgment effect, and the establishment of incentive-constraint litigation mechanism, in order to provide feasible suggestions for the construction of consumer public interest litigation system in our country.