Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), delivered a briefing on the draft revision to the Civil Procedure Law at the 38th session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee on Dec 27, 2022.

Supreme People's Court President Zhou Qiang delivers a briefing on the draft revision to the Civil Procedure Law at the 38th session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC)  Standing Committee on Dec 27, 2022. [Photo/court.gov.cn] 

"With the constant advance of our country's high-level opening-up, courts nationwide have witnessed a rising number of civil and commercial cases related to foreign elements from more than 100 countries and regions," he said while explaining the revision to lawmakers. 

Meanwhile, the new circumstances and new challenges in judicial practice related to foreign elements call for revision to laws in order to provide more efficient and convenient legal services to foreign litigants and to safeguard the country's sovereignty, security and development interests, he added. 

According to Zhou, the SPC has made efforts to offer suggestions on the revision after summarizing its own practice in foreign-related trials and referring to international treaties and the legislative experience of other countries, and prepared revision proposals based on investigations and research, extensively collected advice and repeated arguments. 

There is a widely received consensus that key and difficult problems in foreign-related civil and commercial cases need to be addressed, and it is time to do the revision, Zhou said. 

In August 2021, the SPC was authorized by the 30th session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee to launch a two-year pilot reform of the trial-level system. The pilot reform has since delivered the expected result, showing it is necessary to translate the results into law, he noted. 

The amendment mainly involves 29 articles, including 16 new articles and 13 revisions. 

The revision of the foreign-related part includes further improving the jurisdiction rules of people's courts on foreign-related civil and commercial cases, making more delivery means available for foreign parties, and adding articles on extraterritorial investigation and evidence collection. 

The expanded application scope of withdrawal, the clarified rules for judicial technicians in litigation, and the improved retrial application procedures and standards are also included in the revision.