The Supreme People's Court (SPC), China's top court, recently issued the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Handling of Cases Applying for Enforcement Supervision, which summarized the experience of the people's courts in handling such cases in recent years, and provided regulation and guidance on dealing with common issues arising in such cases.  

In terms of case filing and acceptance, the document set forth guidelines and requirements on appropriate ways for parties to apply to the enforcement court and the court at a higher level to press the enforcement in place. For cases that should be resolved through arbitration or substantive litigation, it specified that litigants and interested parties should seek substantive dispute relief procedures for resolution, which will eliminate confusion in the existing practice. It also regulated the handling of multiple and repeated applications for enforcement supervision, which will enhance the efficiency of enforcement work and better protect the legitimate rights and interests of litigants.

In terms of the time limit for enforcement supervision application, the opinions specified that if an applicant refuses to accept the ruling of the execution of reconsideration, or applies to the court for enforcement supervision because the time limit for filing an objection to the execution or for applying for reconsideration has expired, the application should be made within a certain time limit. This is conducive to maintaining the execution order and effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the winning parties.

The opinions further clarified the scope of the SPC and high people's courts in accepting and handling such cases, as well as the conditions for applying to the SPC for enforcement supervision, which comprehensively intensified the SPC's role in ensuring the correct and unified application of the law.

The opinions also made additional stipulations on concluding such cases in three ways, and offered guidance on the requirements of the closing documents.