Mainland revises law to close court neutrality loopholes
China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, passed a revised Civil Procedure Law yesterday to try to plug some legal loopholes.
One of the amendments bans judges, prosecutors and court staff from accepting banquet invitations and gifts from plaintiffs, defendants or lawyers, and prohibits judges from meeting people involved in cases they are to hear.
Lawyers, plaintiffs and defendants can demand that judges who breach the new restrictions be barred from hearing the case.
Professor Ong Yew-kim, an expert in mainland law at Hong Kong's Chinese University, said that while the independence or neutrality of judges was central to the administration of justice in common-law jurisdictions, the obligations of mainland judges, prosecutors and lawyers were unclear.
"The new regulation seems a silly rule in the eyes of Hongkongers, but it is needed to define the situation clearly on the mainland because of its imperfect legal system," Ong said.
"The original rule just said that all interested parties involved in related cases should be debarred."
The revised Civil Procedure Law also allows lawyers to invite specialists to back up their arguments in cases involving medical accidents, environmental protection and intellectual property rights violations.
However, only government departments and approved organisations will have the right to file public interest lawsuits involving cases of pollution and violation of consumers' legal rights.
Xinhua described the amended law as a big leap forward in perfecting the mainland's civil law system, but the public were more sceptical.
