CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Yaxing Zhang, Bing San, Yi Cao and Jiahui Zhu, Han Kun Law Offices
Statutory exceptions prohibiting online publication of judicial documents include: • civil judgments involving state secrets; • cases concerning divorce proceedings, child cus - tody, guardianship of minors; and • other circumstances where the court deems it inappropriate for online publication. When publishing judicial documents, courts must redact the following information: • personal information of individuals – home addresses, contact details, ID numbers, etc; • information of legal entities – bank account num - bers, licence plate numbers, etc; • trade secrets; and • personal privacy-related information. If any party objects to the online publication of civil judgments/rulings, it may file a written application with the court requesting full non-publication, partial redaction or anonymisation (eg, replacing names with “Zhang XX”) with justification (eg, involvement of trade secrets or personal privacy). 3. Foreign Judgments 3.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Legal Basis for Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Court Judgments In China, the primary legal basis for recognising and enforcing foreign court judgments includes the fol - lowing. International treaties China has not yet acceded to any universal interna - tional convention on recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. Bilateral judicial assistance agreements China has concluded bilateral judicial assistance trea - ties or agreements containing provisions on the mutu - al recognition and enforcement of civil and commer - cial judgments with the following 35 countries: France, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Hungary, Morocco,
the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Poland, Mongolia, Belarus, Argentina, Vietnam, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Romania, Bulgaria, Cuba, Kyr - gyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Peru, Algeria, Kuwait, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Iran, Laos, Lithuania and North Korea. Principle of reciprocity In the absence of treaty relations, Chinese courts may examine applications for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments based on the principle of reci - procity. In judicial practice, the establishment of reci - procity includes: • de jure reciprocity – the foreign country’s laws permit the recognition and enforcement of Chinese civil or commercial judgments, even if there is no prior record of such enforcement; • consensus-based reciprocity – a mutual under - standing or consensus has been established between China and the foreign jurisdiction explic - itly acknowledging reciprocity; and • presumed or diplomatically promised reciprocity – through diplomatic exchanges, either China or the foreign jurisdiction has issued a formal promise of reciprocity (this presumption stands unless the for - eign jurisdiction has previously refused the recogni - tion of a Chinese judgment on the grounds that no reciprocal relationship exists). Legal Basis for Recognition and Enforcement of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Court Judgments Concerning the recognition and enforcement in Main - land China of civil and commercial judgments issued by the courts of the Hong Kong Special Administra - tive Region (SAR), Macau SAR and the Taiwan region, the SPC has promulgated the following specialised judicial instruments: • Arrangement on Mutual Recognition and Enforce - ment of Civil and Commercial Judgments between the courts of the Mainland and the Hong Kong SAR; • Arrangement on Mutual Recognition and Enforce - ment of Civil and Commercial Judgments between the Mainland and the Macau SAR; and
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