Mainland, HK sign legal agreement
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-17 10:33
After nearly four years of discussions, the Chinese mainland and Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region signed an agreement in Hong Kong to make
civil and commercial judgments delivered in each others' courts enforceable in
both places.
The long-awaited pact means that a judgment creditor will no longer need to
bring a legal action again in the place where the property of the debtor is
situated.
On behalf of the central government and HKSAR government, the Grand Justice
Huang Songyou, Vice President of the Supreme People's Court, and Secretary for
Justice Wong Yan-lung signed the agreement.
The agreement is applicable only to money judgments on disputes arising from
commercial contracts where the parties involved have made an agreement in
writing in which a mainland court or a HKSAR court is expressly designated as
the court to have sole jurisdiction for resolving the dispute concerned.
Both sides have agreed on a list of 469 mainland courts whose judgments in
commercial cases may be enforceable in Hong Kong, including the Supreme People's
Court, 32 higher people's courts, 389 intermediate courts and 47 basic-level
courts.
It is another mutual legal assistance agreement reached between the two
places in line with the Basic Law, following the signing of the Arrangement for
Mutual Service of Judicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Proceedings and the
Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards in 1999.
Calling the signing of the arrangement a landmark symbolizing the on-going
progress of legal assistance between the Chinese mainland and the HKSAR, Huang
said it marks a big step forward toward a closer relationship of legal
assistance between the two places.
"It is another good example of successful cooperation between the two places
following the signing of the 1999 arrangement," Huang said, adding the scope of
mutual legal assistance is extending from the service of judicial documents in
civil and commercial proceedings and enforcement of arbitral awards to a wider
areas at higher level.
Huang said the arrangement will have a positive effect on the successful
implementation of "One Country, Two Systems."
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