Laws of the People's Republic of China

Some Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on the Service of Judicial Documents of Foreign-related Civil or Commercial Cases

Fa Shi [2006] No. 5

(Adopted at the 1394th meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court on July 17th, 2006)

In order to regulate the service of judicial documents of foreign-related civil or commercial cases, the present Provisions are formulated according to the provisions of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as Civil Procedure Law) and in combination with trial practices.

Article 1

Where the people's court hears foreign-related civil or commercial cases and serves judicial documents to the addressee who has no domicile within the territory of the People's Republic of China, the present Provisions shall be applicable.

Article 2

The term "judicial documents" which is mentioned in the present Provisions shall refer to the duplicates of the bills of complaint, duplicates of appeals, duplicates of counterclaims, duplicates of pleadings, authorizations, summons, judgments, intermediation documents, ruling documents, orders of payment, written decisions, notices, certificates, receipts of service and other judicial documents.

Article 3

Where the addressee is a natural person, legal representative or major principal of an enterprise or any other organization within the territory of the People's Republic of China, the people's court may serve the judicial documents to the natural person or the legal representative or major principal.

Article 4

Except that the addressee definitely indicates in the authorization that its litigation agent has no right to receive judicial documents on its behalf, the litigation agent entrusted by the addressee shall be the litigation agent who is entitled to receive judicial documents on the addressee's behalf which is prescribed in Item 4 of Article 247 of the Civil Procedure Law, and the people's court may serve judicial documents to the litigation agent.

Article 5

Where serving judicial documents to the addressee, the people's court may serve to the representative agency established within the territory of the People's Republic of China by the addressee

Where the addressee has any branch office or business agent within the territory of the People's Republic of China, the people's court may, upon the authorization of the addressee, serve judicial documents to the branch office or the business agent.

Article 6

Where serving judicial documents to the addressee without domicile within the territory of the People's Republic of China, if any judicial assistance agreement has been concluded between the country in which the addressee locates and the People's Republic of China, the people's court may serve in the ways as specified in the judicial assistance agreement; if the country in which the addressee locates is a member country of the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extra-judicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters,, the people's court may serve in the ways as specified in the Convention.

Where the country in which the addressee locates has concluded any judicial assistance agreement with the People's Republic of China, and is also a member country of the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extra-judicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters, the people's court may perform according to the provisions of the judicial assistance agreement.

Article 7

Where the judicial documents are served according to any judicial assistance agreement or the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extra-judicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters, or through diplomatic ways, if no certificate on the receipt of service is received upon the expiration of six months since the date when the competent department of China forwards the judicial documents to the competent department of the country in which the addressee locates, and it can't confirm the successful service according to various circumstances, it shall be deemed as that the documents can not be served in this way.

Article 8

Where the country in which the addressee locates permits service by post, the people's court may serve through post.

When serving by post, the receipt of service shall be attached. In case the addressee does not sign on the receipt of the service but sign on the receipt of the mail, it shall be deemed as that the judicial documents have been served, and the date of receipt signed by the addressee shall be regarded as the date of service.

Where no certificate on the receipt of service is received upon the expiration of six months since the date of post, and it can't confirm the successful service according to various circumstances, it shall be deemed as that the documents could not be served by post.

Article 9

Where the people's court serves judicial documents by the way of public announcement prescribed in Item 7 of Article 247 of the Civil Procedure Law, the content of the announcement shall be published at the newspapers and periodicals which are publicly circulated both at home and abroad.

Article 10

Besides the above-mentioned ways of service as prescribed in the present Provisions, the people's court may serve upon the addressee by fax, e-mail and other appropriate ways by which the receipt may be confirmed.

Article 11

Besides the way of public announcement, the people's court may simultaneously adopt many ways to serve, while the date of service shall be determined according to the first way in which the service is achieved.

Article 12

Where the people's court serves judicial documents to the addressee's legal representative, major principal, litigation agent, representative agency or branch office or business agent that is entitled to receive service, which is within the territory of the People's Republic of China, the way of service by leaving it at the addressee's place may be applicable.

Article 13

Where the addressee does not perform the signing procedure in the judicial documents served by the people's court, if there is any of the following circumstances, the service shall be deemed as successful:

1.

The addressee has mentioned the content of the served judicial documents in written form to the people's court;

2.

The addressee has performed according to the content of the served judicial documents;

3.

Other circumstances under which the service can be deemed as successful.

Article 14

Where it is necessary to forward the judicial documents served by the people's court through the superior people's court according to relevant provisions, the application form for forwarding shall be attached.

The superior people's court shall, within 7 workdays, forward the judicial documents after the receipt of judicial documents that are applied to be forwarded by the lower-class people's court.

Where the superior people's court deems that the judicial documents applied to be forwarded by the lower-class people's court do not comply with relevant provisions and need to be supplemented or corrected, it shall send them back to the people's court that files the application for forwarding within 7 workdays.

Article 15

Where it is necessary to provide the translated versions of the judicial documents according to the relevant provision when served by the people's court, the people's court that has accepted the case shall entrust a translation institution within the territory of the People's Republic of China to have them translated.

The translated version shall not be affixed with the seal of the people's court, but shall be signed by or affixed with the seal of the translation institution or the translator to prove the consistency between the translated text and the original text.

Article 16

The present Provisions shall come into force as of the date of its promulgation.