Recently, the Supreme People's Court ("SPC") has issued the Circular on the Trial and Enforcement of Civil and Commercial Cases According to Law to Safeguard the Healthy Development of Non-governmental Investments (the "Circular").
The Circular requires the proper trial of cases involving contractual disputes, ownership interest disputes, intellectual property, financing disputes, and labor disputes according to law. Also, the Circular proposes the need of identifying the effectiveness of contracts accurately, dividing responsibilities of each party concerned under the contract correctly, determining property relations accurately, specifying and safeguarding the various legitimate rights enjoyed and exercised by different market players under the law, intensifying punishment imposed on various acts that infringe others' intellectual properties, curbing the abuse of monopoly position by monopolists with dominant position in the market, encouraging private corporations to raise funds through different channels, recognizing the validity of new types of guarantee contracts correctly, cracking down on illegal fund raising according to law, trying targeted cases of labor disputes to reduce labor costs of enterprises. In addition, the Circular puts forward that coercive measures shall be taken in a legal and prudent manner to protect normal production and operation of enterprises.