Research On The Classification Of The Res Judicata Of Offsetting Defense In Civil Procedure

In judicial practice, when there are debtor-creditor relationship between both parties in civil cases, if one party claim to the other party for the creditor's rights, the other party will often claim offsetting defense in litigation in order to simplify the process of the performance of the debts. In the previous litigation, the court has carried the substantive trial on the offsetting defense which the defendant claims, then whether defendants could file another lawsuit according to the opposition claims of the creditor's right which it had complained before? Whether the offsetting defense which was based on the opposition claims of the creditor's right would produce res judicata after it was heard by the court ?To answer this question at all, it is necessary to make a study on the res judicata of the offsetting defense, and to figure out whether offsetting defense will produce res judicata. Besides, we also need to find out that under what circumstances will offsetting defense have res judicata and what is the scope of the res judicata that offsetting defense produces.Although the system of offsetting has been explicitly stipulated in the civil substantive law of our country and it is widely adopted by the parties, at present research on the theory of offsetting in our country is still very scarce. Due to the neglect of the offsetting system both on legislation and theory, a unified standard for the court to judge the case referred to offsetting in the judicial practice is lacking. What's worse, when the court encounter the case that the defendant files offsetting defense according to the opposition claims of the creditor's right, the approach for the judge to handle the offsetting defense is various. Such judicial status not only leads to the consequence that the function of offsetting system is weakened, but also seriously affects the judicial authority. Therefore, it is urgent for us to study the offsetting defense theoretically and form a unified standard of justice.In addition to the preface and epilogue, this paper is divided into five parts.The first chapter is about the issues raised. This part briefly introduces the research content about the res judicata of the offsetting defense. This paper expounds the source of the problems studied and the realistic significance of the research in the form of analyzing typical cases.The second chapter is about the premise to construct the system of classification of the res judicata that offsetting defense produces. It is reasonable and necessary for the defendant to put forward offsetting defense in civil lawsuit. This paper through discussing the judicial confusion when China's judicial practice department handles case where the party files offsetting defense in the process of litigation and comparing the mode of offsetting in continental law system and Anglo-American law system, it comes to the conclusion that the offsetting in litigation in our country should adopt the offsetting defense mode. After making a recognition for the legitimacy and rationality of the offsetting defense mode, the paper discusses the concept of offsetting defense, and classifies the offsetting defense according to different circumstances.The third chapter discusses the theoretical basis of the classification of the res judicata of offsetting defense. In the traditional fundamental theory of res judicata, the objective scope of res judicata should only be limited to the text of the judgment. However, included in the grounds of the judgment, the offsetting defense exceptionally produces res judicata. This part analyzes why the offsetting defense should produce res judicata. From the angle of judicial practice, it also discusses the realistic necessity for making offsetting defense produce res judicata. Meanwhile, it is necessary to analyze the difference between offsetting defense and other general type of defenses theoretically.The fourth part analyzes the factors which affects the classification of the res judicata produced by offsetting defense. The res judicata of the offsetting defense has its particularity.On one hand, whether the court has made substantive trial for the offsetting defense. On the other hand, the credits of the offsetting as well as the order that the court handles cases referred to the creditor's rights and the opposition claims of the creditor's right are factors that make great influence on the scope of res judicata produced by the offsetting defense.The fifth part argues how to type the scope of res judicata produced by offsetting defense. in different dimensions. In the perspective of the concrete forms of offsetting defenses in the lawsuit, the scope of res judicata produced by the offsetting defense can be classified into three types as follows: the offsetting defense does not produce any res judicata, the offsetting defense was rejected by the court, and the offsetting defense was admitted by the court. In the perspective of the amount, the scope of res judicata produced by offsetting defense can be divided into two kinds: the amount of the opposition claims of the creditor's right less than that of the creditor's rights or the amount of the opposition claims of the creditor's right more than that of the creditor's rights. Finally, through the above analysis, the paper discusses a preliminary assumption about establishing the application system for the classification of the res judicata produced by offsetting defense. Under that system it can provide a unified law enforcement basis which is used by the judicial practice departments when they hear a case referred to make a judgment for the scope of res judicata produced by offsetting defense, and to safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the parties.