Top court fills glaring hole in civil law by setting deadlines for effecting judgments
The Supreme People's Court has filled a glaring hole in the country's civil law by providing time limits for the enforcement of court judgments.
Under mainland law, the winner of a lawsuit is required to apply to a separate execution division of the courts to have the terms of the judgment carried out.
The Supreme Court issued new rules on Sunday specifying time limits for the execution of judgments and the duration of different stages of the process.
The rules say all judgments involving a handover of property should generally be enforced within six months. They also set time limits for the execution of arbitration awards and state how long a court should take when investigating a losing party's financial situation.
The new rules further provide that the court should take prompt measures to prevent transferring, hiding, selling or damaging properties during the enforcement period, and that the court should host hearings if the party who applied to enforce the judgment is not satisfied with the execution.
Shanghai lawyer Yan Yiming said he believed this was the first time the court had publicly announced a timeframe for the enforcement of judgments.