中国21世纪的民事司法改革

Abstract

The judicial system refers to the totality of legal norms regarding the organizational system of a country's courts and the nature, duties, organizational principles, and work systems of the courts. China's modern civil judicial system is based on the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the Basic Law of the People's Courts of the People's Republic of China, and the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, which were enacted in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since the 1970s, major Western and Eastern countries around the world have comprehensively reformed their civil judicial systems. In Western countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, France, and Germany, the civil law reform movement is generally referred to as “Access to Justice” or has been greatly influenced by it. The term “Access to Justice” originally originated from the “Florence Project,” a research project centered in Florence. Rather than being the creation of a new theory, “Access to Justice” is a step-by-step summary of the civil law reform attempts made by European and American countries in the 1970s. Even in the 1970s, China was carrying out a major reform movement. In December 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing, making the historic decision to shift the focus of the party and the state to economic construction and implement reform and opening up. The civil judicial system, which was established in the early days of reform and opening up, began to show some incompatibility as the reform and opening up progressed. Starting around 1987, some local courts began discussing and exploring reforms centered on “strengthening the burden of proof of the parties.” Since then, it has continued to develop in the order of “strengthening the burden of proof of the parties - reforming the court trial method - reforming the trial system - reforming the litigation system - reforming the judicial system,” and a large-scale judicial reform movement has been formed since the 21st century. Its symbol is the “Central Judicial System Reform Leading Small Group”, which was established in 2003 under the direct guidance of the central government. Since 2012, as socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, China's civil judicial reform has also shown a trend of globalization and deepening development. This article outlines the historical process of China's civil judicial system reform, focuses on the major issues of reform and development logic, examines the similarities and differences between China, Europe, and the United States' civil judicial system reform, and attempts to interpret the characteristics of China's civil judicial system reform with the theme of “Judicial System for People.”