The Several Provisions on Providing Online Case Registration Services for Parties to Cross-border Litigations entered into force on 3 Feb. 2021. There are 12 articles in total. The Provisions aim to promote the capacity and level of the people’s courts to serve parties to cross-border litigations.
Key points of the Provisions include:
For the purposes of the Provisions, “parties to cross-border litigations” include foreigners, residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan region, citizens of Mainland China who habitually reside abroad or in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as enterprises and organizations registered abroad or in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
The people’s courts shall provide online case registration services for parties to cross-border litigations through China Mobile MiniCourt.
Where parties to cross-border litigations apply for online case registration for the first time, the courts with which lawsuits are filed shall verify the identity of the parties first. Identity verification shall be conducted online mainly through the exit-entry certificate identification platform of the National Immigration Administration. Where online verification is impossible, the courts with which lawsuits are filed shall conduct online manual verification of, among others, the parties’ identity documents and identification documents that are notarized and certificated.