Section 5 Judgment and Order

Article 138 A judgment shall clearly set forth the following:

(1) cause of action, the claims, facts and cause or causes of the dispute;

(2) the facts and causes as found in the judgment and the basis of application of the law;

(3) the outcome of adjudication and the costs to be borne; and

(4) the time limit for filing an appeal and the appellate court with which the appeal may be filed.

The judgment shall be signed by the judicial officers and the court clerk, with the seal of the people's court affixed to it.

Article 139 If some of the facts in a case being tried by the people's court are already evident, the court may pass judgment on that part of the case first.

Article 140 An order in writing is to be made in any of the following conditions:

(1)refusal to entertain a case;

(2)objection to the jurisdiction of a court;

(3)rejection of a complaint;

(4)property preservation and advance execution;

(5) approval or disapproval of withdrawal of a suit;

(6) suspension or termination of legal proceedings;

(7) correction of errata in the judgment;

(8) suspension or termination of execution;

(9) refusal to enforce an arbitration award;

(10)refusal to enforce a document of a notary office evidencing the rights of a creditor and entitling him to its compulsory execution; or

(11) other matters to be decided in the form of an order in writing.

An appeal may be lodged against an order in writing in Item (1), (2) and (3) mentioned above.

An order in writing shall be signed by the judicial officers and the court clerk, with the seal of the people's court affixed to it. If it is issued orally, the order shall be entered in the record.

Article 141 All judgments and written orders of the Supreme People's Court, as well as judgments and written orders that may not be appealed against according to the law or that have not been appealed against within the prescribed time limit, shall be legally effective.

Chapter XIII  Summary Procedure

Article 142 When trying simple civil cases in which the facts are evident, the rights and obligations clear and the disputes trivial in character, the primary people's courts and the tribunals dispatched by them shall apply the provisions of this Chapter.

Article 143 In simple civil cases, the plaintiff may lodge his complaint orally.

The two parties concerned may at the same time come before a primary people's court or a tribunal dispatched by it for a solution of their dispute. The primary people's court or the tribunal it dispatched may try the case immediately or set a date for the trial.

Article 144 In trying a simple civil case, the primary people's court or the tribunal dispatched by it may use simplified methods to summon at any time the parties and witnesses.

Article 145 Simple civil cases shall be tried by a single judge alone and the trial of such cases shall not be bound by the provisions of Articles 122, 124, and 127 of this Law.

Article 146 The people's court trying a case in which summary procedure is followed shall conclude the case within three months from the date of placing the case on the docket.

Chapter XIV Procedure of Second Instance

Article 147 If a party refuses to accept a judgment of first instance of a local people's court, he shall have the right to file an appeal with the people's court at the next higher level within 15 days from the date on which the written judgment was served.

If a party refuses to accept a written order of first instance of a local people's court, he shall have the right to file an appeal with a people's court at the next higher level within 10 days from the date on which the written order was served.

Article 148 For filing an appeal, a petition for the purpose shall be submitted. The content of the appeal petition shall include the names of the parties, the names of the legal persons and their legal representatives or names of other organizations and their principal heads; the name of the people's court where the case was originally tried; file number of the case and the cause of action; and the claims of the appeal and the reasons.

Article 149 The appeal petition shall be submitted through the people's court which originally tried the case, and copies of it shall be provided according to the number of persons in the other party or of the representatives thereof.

If a party appeals directly to a people's court of second instance, the said court shall within five days transmit the appeal petition to the people's court which originally tried the case.