Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Evidence in Civil Proceedings

Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Evidence in Civil Proceedings

Fa Shi [2001] No. 33

December 21, 2001

The Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Evidence in Civil Proceedings adopted at the 1201st meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court on December 6, 2001 are hereby issued and shall come into effect on April 1, 2002.

These Provisions have been formulated on the basis of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Civil Procedure Law) and other relevant laws by combining civil trial experience with actual practice for the purpose of ensuring that the people's courts' correct findings of facts, impartial and timely hearing of civil cases, and safeguarding and facilitating the exercise of litigation rights by the parties to such cases according to law.

Chapter I Production of Evidence by the Parties
　
Article 1 Any plaintiff who files a claim and any defendant who files a counterclaim in the people's court shall produce admissible evidence in support thereof.
　
Article 2 Any party to a civil case shall be responsible for producing evidence in support of the facts on which its own claim(s) or the facts on which its defense to the claim(s) of the other party are based.
Where no evidence is produced or the evidence produced is insufficient to support the claims made, the party that bears the burden of proof shall bear any unfavorable consequences.
　
Article 3 The people's court shall inform the parties to a case of the requirements for producing evidence and the legal consequences to facilitate the production of evidence on an open, comprehensive, accurate and honest basis within a reasonable period of time.
Any party who, on objective grounds, is unable to gather evidence independently, may apply for investigation and evidence collection by the people's court.
　
Article 4 The burden of proof in any tortious claim shall be determined in accordance with the following rules:
1. in any claim for the infringement of a patented production process for a new product, the entity or individual that produces the same product shall be responsible for producing evidence demonstrating that the production process it or he uses is different from the process used by the patent holder;
2. in any tortious claim relating to a personal injury suffered as a result of highly dangerous operations, the party alleged to be responsible for creating dangerous conditions shall be responsible for producing evidence demonstrating the fact that the victim intentionally caused the injury;
3. in any compensation claim relating to damage caused by environmental pollution, the party alleged to be responsible for such pollution shall be responsible for producing evidence in support of the existence of any exemption from liability as provided by law or that no causal relationship exists as between his conduct and any damage suffered;
4. in any tortious claim relating to damage caused by the collapse of a building or other facilities or the breaking or falling off of anything stored in or attached to any building, the owner or administrator of the building shall be responsible for producing evidence demonstrating that he was not at fault;
5. in any tortious claim for damage suffered in connection with the rearing of animals, the party responsible for rearing or managing the animals concerned shall be responsible for producing evidence demonstrating that the victim or any third party was at fault;
6. in any tortious claim for damage caused by a defective product, the manufacturer of the product concerned shall be responsible for producing evidence demonstrating the existence of any exemption from liability as provided by law;
7. in any tortious claim for damage caused by common danger, the party responsible for creating the danger shall be responsible for producing evidence demonstrating any claim that no causal relationship exists between his conduct and any damage suffered; and
8. in any tortious claim for medical misadventure, the medical institution concerned shall be responsible for producing evidence demonstrating that no causal relationship exists as between its conduct and any injury suffered, or that it was not at fault.
Where there are special provisions in any relevant law concerning the production of evidence, such provisions shall prevail.)>
　
Article 5 In any case concerning a contractual dispute, the party that claims that a contractual relationship has been established and that the contract has taken effect shall be responsible for producing evidence in support of such a claim; any party that claims that the contract has been altered, repudiated, terminated or canceled shall be responsible for producing evidence in support of such a claim.
In any dispute over contractual performance, the party alleged to have failed to perform his contractual obligations shall be responsible for producing evidence to the contrary;
In any dispute over agency powers, the party that claims the existence of such powers shall be responsible for producing evidence in support of such a claim.
　
Article 6 In any case concerning a labor dispute, where the dispute is caused by the employer's decision to terminate, remove or dismiss the employee, terminate his employment contract, or reduce his remuneration, or relates to the calculation of the number of service years of the employee, the employer shall be responsible for producing evidence in support of its claim.
　
Article 7 Where no specific statutory provisions exist and it is not possible to define which party is responsible for producing evidence on the basis of these Provisions or any other judicial interpretation, the people's court may determine the burden of proof according to the principles of fairness, honesty and credibility and by taking in to consideration factors such as the parties' overall ability to produce evidence.
　
Article 8 Other than in cases involving personal identification, where one party explicitly acknowledges the facts alleged by the other party in the course of litigation, the other party need not
produce evidence to prove the relevant facts.
Any party who neither admits nor denies facts alleged by another party, but fails to explicitly admit or deny such facts after the judge has delivered an adequate explanation and made sufficient inquiries, shall be deemed to have admitted such facts.
Where any party entrusts a representative to appear on his behalf in a case, any admission made by the representative shall be deemed to be that of the party concerned, except where an admission of fact made by any representative who has not been specifically authorized to do so would lead to the admission of a claim made by the other party. Where the party concerned is present but fails to deny an admission made by his representative, the admission shall be deemed to have been made by that party.
Where any party withdraws a prior admission and obtains the agreement of the other party prior to the end of the court hearing, or has adequate evidence to prove that the admission was made under coercion or was due to a gross misunderstanding and is inconsistent with the facts, the other party shall not be relieved of the burden of proof.
　
Article 9 No party shall be required to present evidence to prove any of the facts described below:
1. facts that are common knowledge;
2. natural laws and theories;
3. any fact that can be inferred in accordance with legal provisions or on the basis of a known fact or rule of everyday life;
4. any fact confirmed in a judgment of the people's court that has taken effect;
5. any fact confirmed in an arbitration award that has taken effect; or
6. any fact that has been proved in a valid notary document.
Where any party produces evidence refuting any fact described in item 1, 3, 4, 5, or 6 of the preceding paragraph, the relevant fact shall be provable.
　
Article 10 When producing evidence to the people's court, the parties shall submit the original document or item of evidence. Where a party needs to retain the original document or item of evidence or where it is difficult to submit the original document or item of evidence, a photocopy or reproduction verified by the people's court to be a true copy of the original may be submitted instead.)>
　
Article 11 Where any evidence submitted by the parties is sourced from outside the territory of the People's Republic of China, the evidence concerned shall be certified by a notary's office in the relevant country of origin and authenticated by the embassy of the People's Republic of China in that country, or shall be certified in accordance with the procedures specified in the relevant treaty concluded between the People's Republic of China and the country concerned.
Where any evidence submitted by the parties is sourced from Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan, the applicable evidential formalities shall be observed.)>
　
Article 12 Any document or specification materials written in a foreign language submitted by any party to a case shall be accompanied with a Chinese translation.
　
Article 13 Where both parties to a case consent to the admission of any fact that concerns the interests of the State, the public interests of society, or the lawful rights and interests of any other person, the people's court may order the parties to produce relevant evidence.
　
Article 14 The parties to a case shall categorize and number the evidential materials they submit, draft a brief description of the sources of evidential materials and the facts in support of which the evidence is produced, sign and seal them, indicate the date of submission and submit the same number of copies as there are other parties.
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