Research On The System Of Pretrial Conference In My Country's Civil Litigation

In recent years,with China’s judicial reform and case registration system entering the deep-water area,the contradiction between fewer people and more cases has become more and more prominent after the court receives a large number of civil cases,which urgently needs to be solved from the aspect of litigation procedure.The interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on the application of the Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China,which came into force in 2015,marks the formal establishment of China’s civil litigation pre-trial meeting system.The pre-trial meeting is stipulated in articles 224 and 225 of the judicial interpretation.As an important link in the pre-trial preparation procedure,pre-trial meeting is not only conducive to protecting the rights and interests of the parties in the procedure,but also can ensure the smooth implementation of the trial and the centralization of the trial through evidence exchange and sorting out disputes,so as to improve the efficiency and quality of civil litigation.However,at the institutional level,the current judicial interpretation is not clear about the functional orientation of the pre-trial meeting system,the systematic lack of standardization of the content of the pre-trial meeting system,and there are still some deviations in China’s understanding of the system,resulting in the failure of the pre-trial meeting system to really play its role in practice.Accurately positioning the system value function of the pre-trial meeting,standardizing the procedure operation of the pre-trial meeting,and clarifying the legal effect of the pre-trial meeting are of great value to enrich the substantive pre-trial preparation procedure and promote the quality of the court trial.Therefore,it is necessary to improve the system from both theoretical and institutional aspects.Starting from the origin,concept,value and function of the pretrial conference system,this paper puts forward the problems existing in the standardization of the current civil pretrial conference in China,and takes the Huaxi District Court as the blueprint,further analyzes the practical situation,problems existing in the operation process and internal reasons of the civil pretrial conference,and then makes a comparative analysis with the pretrial conference system of other countries,Soas toput forward suggestions to improve the relevant supportingsystems.This paperisdivided into fourchapters:The first chapter is an overview of China’s civil pretrial conference system.This paper expounds this chapter from the origin,concept,value and function of China’s civil pretrial conference system,and the normative analysis of China’s current civil pretrial conference system.The prototype of pre-trial meeting appeared very early in the field of civil litigation in China,and the judicial interpretation was not formally established until 2015.The author summarizes the concept of pre-trial meeting system as follows: after the case is filed and before the trial,in order to ensure that the trial can be conducted fairly and effectively,under the auspices of the judge,both parties,agents ad litem and other third parties related to the case jointly participate in sorting out the dispute focus of the case A conference system with matters such as evidence exchange and reconciliation.According to the content analysis of relevant judicial interpretation provisions,it has the value of improving court trial efficiency and ensuring procedural justice,as well as the functions of displaying facts,confirming disputes,enriching court trial,reconciliation and mediation,Pluralistic Dispute Resolution and case management.In 2002,Chengdu Intermediate People’s court and in 2015,Shenyang intermediate people’s court,Nanshan District Court and Changsha County Court successively issued operating procedures,which laid a good foundation for the application of pre-trial meeting.However,due to the relatively principled legal provisions of China’s civil litigation pre-trial meeting system,there are no clear provisions on the legal effect of pre-trial meeting,the lack of provisions on the scope of application,the unclear participants and presiding subjects,and the lack of provisionson the numberofpre-trial meetingsand startingmethods,the system islack ofoperability.The second chapter is an empirical analysis of China’s civil litigation pre-trial meeting system.Taking the people’s Court of Huaxi District,Guiyang City,the first batch of pilot units of judicial reform in Guizhou Province as the empirical object,this paper expounds the judicial practice,problems and causes of the court.Due to the absence of mandatory operating procedures as a basis,there are different internal practices in the application scope,starting subject and host of the pre-trial meeting system;In the process of operation,due to the deviation of judges’ understanding of pre-trial meeting,many cases,few people and slack thinking,the application rate of pre-trial meeting is not high;Because the law does not clearly define the scope of application of the pre-trial meeting,different judges of the court have different understandings and are more arbitrary in application.The main reasons are that there is no strict centralized trial doctrine,no real court trial centralism,no compulsory lawyer agency system,and the contradiction between morecases andfewer peopleismore prominent.The third chapter is a comparative analysis of the pre-trial meeting system of extraterritorial civil litigation.Both common law system and civil law system have certain enlightenment and reference for China in the system of civil pre-trial meeting.The two legal systems have played a good reference role in improving the pre-trial meeting system of civil litigation in China in terms of participants,hosts,the number of pre-trial meetings,the main contents and legal effects of pre-trial meetings.China’s pretrial conference system can learn from Germany’s first oral debate procedure and Japan’s round table preparation procedure.In Germany,the first oral debate procedure before the formal trial plays the role of sorting out disputes and fixing evidence,involving factual and legal issues.Japan’s round table preparatory procedure is highly similar to China’s pretrial conference system in form.However,whether it is the common law system or the civil law system,when absorbing and using for reference,China should understand,digestand apply the legal ideas,rules andoperation modes of othercountries’ systems,and then form a pre-trial meeting system model suitable for China’s national conditions through the creative practice of judicial practice,so as to provide reference for China’s civil litigation pre-trial meeting system.The fourth chapter is the improvement of China’s civil litigation pre-trial meeting system.The first is to compare and analyze the relationship between pre-trial meeting,trial and pre-trial preparation procedure,and clarify that pre-trial meeting not only serves the formal trial,but also has its own independence;In the pre-trial preparation procedure,the most noteworthy are evidence exchange and pre-trial meeting.As two parallel ways of pre-trial preparation,the court can voluntarily choose which one to adopt according to the situation of the case,but the content of pre-trial meeting also includes evidence exchange.Second,the transcripts of the pre-trial meeting shall have the same effect as the transcripts of the trial,and no one can overturn them arbitrarily.The record shall specify issues such as avoidance and reconciliation,classify and summarize the evidence in dispute and non dispute,and sort out the main dispute focus of the case.When the record of the pre-trial meeting involves the parties’ admission of facts or the need to reach and demodulate the obligations of one party,the court may prepare the decision of the pre-trial meeting for the part of the record of admission of facts or the reconciliation and mediation plan,which is more strengthened in form and legal effect,so as to better urge one party not to renege or perform its obligations.Third,the law should make it clear that the records of the pre-trial meeting and the matters recorded in the records have the same legal effect as the court records.The uncontested evidence and facts shall not be changed at will after being signed and confirmed,and shall be used as the basis for the judge’s judgment.Fourth,through the establishment of compulsory defense,investigation and evidence collection,compulsory lawyer agency,constant supplement of court trial team and other institutional mechanisms supporting the pre-trial meeting system,the pre-trial meeting system of civil litigation can operatemoresmoothly and play amore thoroughrole.