The Decision on Amending the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) on the Application of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China was adopted by the SPC's Judicial Committee at its No. 1866 plenary meeting on March 22. It will come into force on April 10.

The Decision on Amending the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China was adopted at the 32nd Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress on Dec 24, 2021, which revised provisions on the judicial confirmation procedure, summary procedure, small claims procedure, sole appointment procedure, online litigation and services and added seven new articles.

In the following month, the SPC amended its interpretation accordingly when a total of 16 revisions were made.

These revisions mainly covered the extension of the trial time for summary cases, procedural conversion and objection, litigation document delivery, relevant provisions on small claims, joint jurisdiction of cases involving judicial confirmation, the serial number of the provisions of the amended law and the order of the articles in its judicial interpretation, as well as some literal expressions.

For instance, according to Article 164 of the newly amended Civil Procedure Law, the conditions for extending the trial time of summary procedure cases have been revised from "both parties agree to continue to apply the summary procedure" to "need to be extended under special circumstances".

Meanwhile, the maximum trial time of summary procedure cases has been shortened from six months to four.

The people's courts are allowed to summon the parties, notify witnesses and serve litigation documents through simplified methods such as by message, phone call, SMS, fax or e-mail.

The SPC will survey and study judicial practices and solicit opinions to further improve the judicial interpretation of the new Civil Procedure Law.