Procedural Rights and Obligations of Litigants

According to relevant regulations of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, litigants shall have the following procedural rights and obligations:
I. Litigants’ procedural rights: 1. The plaintiff shall have the right of action. Action refers to a legal act of bringing a lawsuit to a people’s court performed by a litigant in its own name in order to protect itself when it believes that its civil rights and interests are either infringed or involved in any dispute. 2. The defendant shall have the right of reply and the right of cross action. Reply in civil action refers to a legal act performed by the defendant or appellee of providing a reply or vindication for the facts and grounds of action or appeal given by the plaintiff or appellor and its claim. Cross action refers to a separate and independent lawsuit brought after the commencement of the civil proceedings by the defendant in an action against the plaintiff in the same action for some reason arising from the same transaction or event that is the basis for the plaintiff's lawsuit. 3. The litigants shall have the right to employ process attorneys to represent themselves. 4. The litigants shall have the right to request judges and clerks to withdraw from case. Withdrawal means that the judge in charge of a case or other workers participating in the case withdraw(s) from hearing or participating in the case according to law when they have an interest in the case or some other relationship between them and the case may affect their impartially hearing the case. Withdrawal is applicable to translator, expert witness, and inspector. 5. The litigants shall have the right to debate at the stage of court debate. 6. The litigants shall have the right to request conciliation or reconcile of their own accord. 7. The litigants shall have the right of self-recognition. Self-recognition means that a litigant recognizes or raises no dispute over the trueness of the facts against itself provided by the other litigant. 8. The litigants shall have the right to appeal to a people’s court at the next higher level within the statutory time limit of appeal if they object to first-instance judgment or ruling. The appealable rulings include dismissal by the court, dispute over jurisdiction and dismissal of action. 9. If a litigant who shall perform its obligations fails to perform its obligations after an award, written ruling and written mediation become legally effective, the other litigant shall have the right to apply to people’s court for enforcement. The enforcement application period is 1 year if one or both litigants are natural persons, or 6 months if both litigants are legal persons or other organizations.
II. Litigants’ procedural obligations mainly include: always observing the order of action, not distorting any fact of case, not falsifying any evidence, and consciously performing any judgment, ruling and mediation agreement having become legally effective.

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