Arrangement on Mutual Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters by Courts of Mainland and Hong Kong SAR Pursuant to Agreed Jurisdiction by Parties Concerned

The Supreme People’s Court and HK SAR achieved consensus on Arrangement on Reciprocal Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters by the Courts of the Mainland and of the Hong King Special Administrative Region Pursuant to Choice of Court Agreements Between Parties Concerned (hereinafter referred to as Arrangement) through consultation and signed on July 14, 2006, according to prescription in article 95 of The Basic Law of Hong Kong Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. The Arrangement was passed in 1390th meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People’s Court on June 12, 2006 and is hereby announced. This Arrangement takes effect on August 1, 2008 according to agreement achieved between both parties.

Supreme People’s Court

July 3, 2008

Fa Shi No.9 [2008]

Supreme People’s Court and HK SAR government hereby make the following arrangement on recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters pursuant to choice of court agreements between parties concerned through consultation according to article 95 of The Basic Law of Hong Kong Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China:

Article 1 

Final judgment, defined with payment amount and enforcement power, made between mainland court and HK SAR court in civil and commercial case with written jurisdiction agreement, the parties concerned shall apply to mainland people’s court or HK SAR court for recognition and enforcement based on this arrangement.

Article 2 

“Final judgment with enforcement power” in this arrangement: 

a. In mainland, it refers to: 

1. Judgment of the supreme people’s court;

2. The second instance judgment and judgment made by the upper level people’s court according to judgment supervision procedure is effective, when judgment of first instance is not allowed to appeal by people’s high court, intermediate people’s court and basic people’s court (as appendix) that’s authorized to be in charge of foreign related, HK, Macao and Taiwan related civil and commercial matters of the first instance, or when the appeal is out of prescribed time limit.

b. In HK SAR, it refers to effective judgment made by court of final appeal, court of the appeal of the high court, court of the first instance and district court.

"Judgment" in this arrangement refers to judgment paper, ruling paper, mediation agreement and payment order in mainland; refers to judgment paper, order and evaluation certificate of legal expense in HK SAR. 

After the party applies to HK SAR for recognition and enforcement of the judgment, if people’s court of the mainland shall legally review the case, such case should be raised by upper level people’s court of the court that makes effective judgment.

Article 3 

“Written choice of court agreement” in this arrangement refers to a written agreement defining the exclusive jurisdiction of either the mainland people’s court or HK SAR in order to revolve dispute with particular legal relation occurred or likely to occur by the parties concerned since effective date of this arrangement.

“Particular legal relation” of this article refers to contract of civil and commercial matters between parties, excluding contract of employment and contract involving natural person with individual consumption, family affair or other non-commercial purposes.

“Written form” in this arrangement refers to contract, letter and electronic data (including telegraph, telex, facsimile, electronic data exchange and email) and other forms that can physically present the carried content and can be used in the future.

Written choice of court agreement can be constituted of one or more copies.

The choice of court agreement exists independently and any change, relief, termination or invalidation of the contract won’t influence effect of the choice of court agreement, except when it’s otherwise prescribed in the contract.  

Article 4 

Application for recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial judgment prescribed in the arrangement, should be submitted to intermediate people’s court of residence, living place or place of property of the applicant in the mainland, or submitted to high court of HK SAR in HK.

Article 5 

If residence, living place or place of property of the applicant are under jurisdiction of different intermediate people's courts, the applicant shall choose one of the people's court to apply for recognition and enforcement rather than applying it to two or more people's courts.

If residence, living place or place of property of the applicant is in both mainland and HK SAR, the applicant can submit application to courts at these two places at the same time. Judgment enforcement amount of courts at both places shouldn't exceed fixed amount of the judgment itself.   Court that has partly or completely executed the judgment should provide status of executed judgment upon requirement of the other court.

Article 6 

Applicant shall submit the following document for application of judgment recognition and enforcement:

a. Application for recognition and enforcement;

b. Copy of judgment paper with seal of court that makes the final judgment;

c. Certificate issued by court of final judgment to prove such judgment is the final judgment referred to in article 2 of this arrangement and can be executed at the place of judgment;

d. Identification evidence:

1. If applicant is natural person, he shall submit ID card or copy of ratified ID card;

2. If applicant is legal person or other form of organization, they shall submit copy of registration certificate of ratified legal person or other form of organization;

3. If applicant is a foreign legal person or other form of organization, they shall submit related ratification and authentication materials.

If there’s no Chinese version of submitted document to mainland people’s court, the applicant shall submit a correct Chinese translation.

The court at the enforcement place doesn’t need to require particular notarization for certificate issued by court prescribed in this article. 

Article 7

The following items should be included in the application for recognition and enforcement: 

a. The name and living place of the party, who is natural person; name and location of legal person or other organization, and name, position and residence of the legal representative or principal;

b. Reason of application and request content, place of property and property status of the applicant; 

c. Whether the judgment is applied in court of original place and the enforcement status.

Article 8 

Applicant shall comply with law of the enforcement place while applying for recognition and enforcement of judgment of court in mainland or HK SAR, except for otherwise being prescribed.

Application period for recognition and enforcement by applicant is two years.

During the above period, if judgment in mainland is applied to be executed in HK SAR, it will calculate from the last day of performance period prescribed by the judgment; if the judgment requires performance in different period, it will calculate from the last day of each performance period; if the judgment doesn’t prescribe performance period, it will calculate since effective day of the judgment; if judgment in HK SAR is applied to be executed in the mainland, it will calculate from the day of judgment mandatory enforcement, which is put in the judgment; if the judgment has other prescription during performance period, it will calculate since maturity of performance period.

Article 9

For application for judgment recognition and enforcement, if debtor of the first trial provides evidence that proves one of the following situations and is proved by the court that handles the application, the judgment will not be recognized or executed: 

a. The jurisdiction agreement is invalid according to local law at the original court chosen by the parties concerned, except for jurisdiction agreement that is judged by the chosen court as being valid;

b. The judgment is performed completely;

c. Court of the execution place enjoys exclusive jurisdiction based on local law;

d. The party that loses a lawsuit and doesn’t appear in court has no legal summon or hasn’t acquired legal replying time though with legal summon according to law at the original court, except for cases that original court announce service based on law or related regulation;

e. Judgment is acquired by cheating;

f. Judgment of the same lawsuit by court at enforcement place, or judgment of the same lawsuit request by courts abroad, or arbitration made by related arbitration institute have been recognized or executed by court at the enforcement place.

If the people’s court of mainland believes enforcement of the judgment made by HK SAR impairs social public interests, or court of HK SAR believes enforcement of judgment made by court in mainland violates public policy of HK SAR, the recognition and enforcement are not permitted. 

Article 10

For judgment made by court of HK SAR, if the debtor confirmed by judgment has lodged suit or the procedure is still underway, the people's court of mainland, after checking and verification, can pause recognition and enforcement of the procedure. If all or part of the original judgment is maintained after appealing, the reorganization and enforcement procedure can be recovered; if the original judgment is overthrown, the recognition and enforcement procedure can be ceased. 

If local people’s court of the mainland has arraigned adjudication of the made judgment according to judgment supervision procedure, or the Supreme Court has arraigned another adjudication, after being checked by the court of HK SAR, the recognition and enforcement procedure can be paused. If the second judgment maintains all or part of original judgment, the recognition and enforcement can be recovered; if the second judgment has changed overall original judgment, the recognition and enforcement procedure should be ceased. 

Article 11 

The effect of judgment that's recognized according to this arrangement should be equal to judgment of local court.

Article 12

If the party doesn't agree to the judgment of whether it's recognizable or executable, he can apply to the upper level people's court for review in the mainland, or to lodge suit based on law and regulation in HK SAR.

Article 13 

The court won't handle lawsuit, lodged by the party with the same fact, while the court is handling the application of recognizing and executing judgment of the party.

The court won't handle judgment that's recognized or executed if the party lodges lawsuit with the same fact.

The applicant can't submit application for recognition or enforcement again based on judgment that should not be recognized or executed in article 9 of this arrangement, but can lodge suit to local court with the same case fact according to law of executing place.

Article 14 

Before court handles application for recognizing and executing judgment, they can adopt protective or compulsory measures for applicant property based on regulations of property preservation or assets transferring prohibition of local law and according to application of the applicant.

Article 15 

If the party applies to related court for judgment enforcement, they should pay execution fee or court expense based on law and regulation on lawsuit charge of execution place.

Article 16 

The bidding scope recognized and executed by courts of mainland and HK SAR includes but not limited to fixed amounted confirmed in judgment, but also interests required by the judgment, lawyer fee and legal cost ratified by the court, excluding tax and fine.  

Legal cost in HK SAR refers to lawsuit fee prescribed or ordered amount in evaluation certificate of lawsuit fee by the judge or judicial executive officer.

Article 17 

This arrangement is applicable to judgment made by courts of mainland and HK SAR since the effective day (including the effective day) of this arrangement.

Article 18 

Any problem occurs during implementation of this arrangement or modification is necessary, the Supreme People's Court and government of HK SAR shall resolve through consultation. 

Name List of Basic People’s Court Authorized to Handle Foreign Related, HK, Macao and Taiwan Civil and Commercial Case of the First Instance
（As of May 31, 2006）

Guangdong Province

Guangzhou Yuexiu People’s Court

Guangzhou Zhuhai People’s Court

Guangzhou Tianhe People’s Court

Guangzhou Fanyu People’s Court

Guangzhou Luogang People’s Court

Guangzhou Nansha People’s Court

Shenzhen Futian People’s Court

Shenzhen Luohu People’s Court

Shenzhen Baoan People’s Court 

Shenzhen Longgang People’s Court

Shenzhen Nanshan People’s Court

Shenzhen Yantian People’s Court

Foshan Chancheng People’s Court

Dongwan People’s Court

People’s Court of Zhanjiang Economic And Technological Development Zone

People’s Court of Huizhou Dayawan Economic And Technological Development Zone

Shandong Province

People’s Court of Jinan High-tech Industry Development Zone

People’s Court of Zibo High-tech Industry Development Zone

People’s Court of Taian High-tech industry Development Zone

People’s Court of Yantai Economic and Technological Development Zone

People’s Court of Rizhao Economic Development Zone

Hebei Province

People’s Court of Shijiazhuang High-tech Industry Development Zone

People’s Court of Langfang Economic and Technological Development Zone

People’s Court of Qinhuangdao Economic and Technological Development Zone

Hubei Province

People’s Court of Wuhan Economic and technological Development Zone

People’s Court of Wuhan Donghu Technological Development Zone

People’s Court of Xiangfan High-tech Development Zone

Liaoning Province

People’s Court of Shenyang Economic and Technological Development Zone

People’s Court of Shenyang High-tech Industry Development Zone

People’s Court of Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone

Jiangsu Province 

People’s Court of Suzhou Industrial Zone

People’s Court of Wuxi High-tech Industry Development Zone

People’s Court of Changzhou High-tech Industry Development Zone

People’s Court of Nantong Economic and Technological Development Zone

Shanghai

People’s Court of Pudong New Area

People’s Court of Huangpu Area

Jilin Province

People’s Court of Changchun Economic and Technological Development Zone

People’s Court of Jilin High-tech Industry Development Zone

Tianjin

People’s Court of Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zone

Zhejiang Province

Yiwu People’s Court

Henan Province

People’s Court of Zhengzhou High-tech Industry Development Zone

People’s Court of Luoyang High-tech Development Zone

Sichuan Province

People’s Court of Chengdu High-tech Industry Development Zone

People’s Court of Mianyang High-tech Industry Development Zone

Hainan Province

People’s Court of Yangpu Development Zone

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

People’s Court of Baotou Rare Earth High-tech Development Zone

Anhui Province

People's Court of Hefei High-tech Industry Development Zone

If the Supreme People's Court adds or cuts down the number of basic people's court, which is authorized to handle foreign related, HK, Macao and Taiwan related civil and commercial matters of the first trial upon the needs of judgment, they shall list them in appendix after reporting to government of HK Special Administrative Region.