The Supreme People's Court ("SPC") has recently distributed the Decision on Abolishing Some Judicial Interpretations (the 13th Batch) (the "Decision"), with effect from July 20, 2019.
According to the Decision, among the 53 sets of judicial interpretations for civil cases to be repealed are the Several Provisions on Strict Enforcement of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China in Economic Trials and the Several Provisions on Issues Concerning the Reform of Economic Trial Forms in Civil Cases, and another 24 judicial interpretations for criminal cases, including the Official Reply to Whether the Length of Reeducation through Labor Could Offsets the Term of Imprisonment and the Official Reply to How to Identify the Nature of Offences Committed by Practitioners in the Rural Cooperative Foundations, are scrapped. In addition, 26 judicial interpretations on general affairs and administrative litigation, such as the Work Rules of the Supreme People's Court for the Reception of Visitors by the Petitioning Department and the Provisions on Several Issues Concerning Jurisdiction over Administrative Cases, are abolished. As such, 561 judicial interpretations remain effective after this round of clear-up.