Top court moves to improve business environment by clarifying rule of law

The Supreme People's Court issued two judicial guidelines on Thursday to streamline procedures for lawsuits and bankruptcies.

The guidelines are meant to foster a favorable business environment and serve the country's high-quality development through the rule of law, according to the top court.

Under the new guidelines, the hearing of a civil or commercial lawsuit must be completed within six months. A trial can be postponed twice, at most, under special circumstances - for example, an unavoidable delay.

The detailed guidelines are meant to help minimize economic losses for the companies involved in lawsuits, the court said.

The new documents also clarify bankruptcy issues, such as how a company should pay off its debts when a bankruptcy case is filed.

This will help courts nationwide efficiently handle the rapid increase in bankruptcy and civil cases and to create a favorable legal environment for the nation's reform, development and stability, said Liu Guixiang, a member of the top court's judicial committee.

Last year, courts nationwide accepted 18,823 bankruptcy and liquidation cases, up by 97.3 percent year-on-year. Of those, 11,669 cases were concluded, the court said.

As of the end of last year, 98 panels for hearing bankruptcy-related lawsuits had been established across the country, while three special bankruptcy courts were opened at the beginning of this year - in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

"By improving judicial efficiency, companies heavily in debt can be cleared from the market as quickly as possible, and those that still have value in the market can be rebuilt more quickly," Liu said.

Guan Li, deputy chief judge of the top court's No 2 Civil Tribunal, said big data and information platforms will be adopted to speed up the handling of bankruptcy cases.

In the past year, the top court has taken a series of steps to offer better judicial services to litigants in civil and commercial cases, such as those related to property rights and financial disputes.

Courts nationwide heard 839,000 financial cases in 2018 and set up the country's first court specialized in solving financial disputes in Shanghai.

Liu said judicial interpretations of finance-related litigation are also under consideration, including insider trading and market manipulation.