Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Application of Direct Retrial and Remand for Retrial Strictly in Accordance with Civil Trial Supervision Procedures ("Provisions") has been came into force on 15th March, 2015

Civil retrial shall be petitioned by 3 methods, the higher level court retries the case; the direct retrial; and the remand for retrial. According to the “Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Trial Supervision Procedure of the Civil Procedure” promulgated in 2008, the higher level court retry the case shall be the basic principle. However, in the judicial practice, the direct retrial has covered around 60%, and the percentage of the remand for retrial becomes higher and higher, on the contrary, the percentage for modifying the original judgements tends to be lower, which indicates that the retrial system for correcting the errors becomes the words on a paper.

In order to solve such problem, the Supreme People’s Court released “Provisions” on 16th February, 2015, in which the boundary between the higher level cours retries the case and the direct retrial has been presribed. The key points include:

If the retrial is decided by the higher level court based on its functions and powers, the higher level cours shall retry the case.

If the retrial is decided upon petition by a party, principally, the higher level cours shall retry the case.As the exception, the direct retrial could be applied to 4 special categories of cases, such as the Supreme High Court and other high courts can order the direct retrial to those judgement, ruling or mediation paper made by the first instance court; and the persons comprising a party is large in number, or both parties are citizens.

If the retrial is decided upon protest, the court accepting the protest (Remark: it is the higher level court) shall hear the retrial.

In addition, “Provisions” has set the criteria for applying the remand of retrial, and removed “the ascertainment of facts by the original judgement is erroneous” from the scope of the remand of retrial; and also”Provisions” has expanded the scope of retrial, for example, the protest shall not only be restricted to those supported by the people’s procuratorate, the application for modify the original judgement shall be heard.