To clarify subject matters of claims as the lawsuit begins?

reconsidering procedural requirements of Chinese case-filing proceedings

Resumo

Under the reform of the case-filing registration system, we should focus and reflect on whether the subject matter of a civil claim (Streitgegenstand) ought to be identified and clarified. Art. 119 item 3 of the CPL, which regulates the procedural entitlement, factual and legal grounds of a lawsuit, stands as the major source of research. In accordance with the continental legal tradi­tion and the Chinese legal practice, the fundamental meaning of the requirement for a concrete procedural entitlement refers to the specific relief sought by the claimant (Antrag). Although this required condition of “procedural entitlement” could point at the subject matter of a civil pro­cess itself, during the case-filing phase this approach to interpretation is not desirable. Ideally, the legal reason part of the complaint and the suggested cause of action of the claimant should not be regarded as any precondition for bringing a lawsuit and therefore have no connection with the subject matter issue. The exception is that the specific grounds for substantive rights (Anspruch) in the traditional substantive law theory, which could also be classified as some legal reason, relate to the subject matter of a civil claim. Nevertheless, considering the new case-filing registration system, the subject matter of the lawsuit should not be considered as an element of bringing a lawsuit. The court should rather bring the subject matter of the lawsuit into the scope of requirements of the proceedings after accepting the case. Instead, as a procedural condition to be determined after the case-filing system, this issue is supposed to be resolved later. In prac­tice, based on the modification of the traditional substantive law theory of the subject matter, there should at least be multiple possibilities of consolidating claims, among which the elective accumulation of claims (alternative Klagenhäufung) is one reasonable illustration.