The Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) jointly released five typical cases involving objections to enforcing court judgments and rulings on Jan 20, further clarifying relevant legal interpretations and applications and conveying to society an attitude of zero tolerance towards such behavior.
The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) highlighted the need to build a high-level socialist market economy, emphasizing the importance of improving the social credit system and related oversight institutions, where the word "credit" was mentioned several times.
Criminal activities involving objections to enforcing court judgments and rulings directly challenge the compulsory enforcement of effective judgments by courts, seriously undermine judicial and social credibility, and severely infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of those who win the lawsuits. They should be harshly punished in accordance with the law.
On Nov 18, 2024, the SPC and the SPP jointly issued a legal interpretation regarding the application of law in handling criminal cases involving objections to enforcing court judgments and rulings, listing 10 serious instances thereof. In order to guide the accurate understanding and application of the legal interpretation, the two highest legal authorities jointly collected and selected the five typical cases.
The Law and Policy Research Office of the SPP stated that determining the crime of those refusing to enforce judgments and rulings of courts should be based on the original intention of the legislation, adhere to an objective and impartial stance, and comprehensively review the evidence.
It is necessary to substantively examine whether the cases involve those "having the ability to enforce court judgments but refusing to do so" and those making enforcement of judgments or rulings impossible in a positive or negative manner, the office said, adding the economic market background at the time should also be taken into consideration.
It is important to effectively distinguish between the normal production and operation activities of the companies involved in the cases during the period of enforcing the judgments and rulings and the circumstances of "transferring or hiding assets," conduct an objective assessment, and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the parties involved, the office added.
