Independent or Embedded: Changes in Response to Small Claims Proceedings

以进一步加快案件的繁简分流为目标，新修订的《中华人民共和国民事诉讼法》对小额诉讼程序进行了优化完善，但仍将其置于简易程序的框架之内，尚未赋予其独立地位，致使实践中程序适用存在混杂交错的情形。现阶段要想真正发挥小额诉讼程序的全部功效需要我们对先期实践中显著存在的三个问题予以回应，即案件分流的判断标准存在模糊性、程序规则设计不尽合理、内部审判机构的设置较为糅合，同时改革现行的小额诉讼程序，以程序独立为路径指引，完善程序规则及转化机制，建立复合救济渠道。With the aim of further accelerating the division of cases into simple and complex types, the newly revised “Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China” has optimized and improved the small claims procedure. However, it still places it within the framework of the simplified procedure and has not yet granted it an independent status, resulting in a mixed and intertwined situation in the application of the procedure in practice. At the present stage, to truly bring out the full efficacy of the small claims procedure, we need to respond to the three significant problems existing in the early practice, namely, the ambiguity of the judgment criteria for case diversion, the unreasonable design of procedural rules, and the relatively integrated setting of internal judicial institutions. Meanwhile, reform the current small claims procedure and take procedural independence as the path guidance. Improve the procedural rules and transformation mechanism, and establish a composite relief channel.