域外第三人诉讼资助制度的发展

The Development of Third Party Litigation Funding in Foreign Countries

第三人诉讼资助是由非诉讼利益相关方的第三人对诉讼当事人一方进行资助的诉讼实践。历史上,第三人诉讼资助曾一度被视为犯罪或侵权行为。随着社会的发展,该诉讼实践逐渐被法律承认,并被认为是能提高接近正义的社会福祉。在世界范围内,第三人诉讼资助的实践发展程度各有不同,资助的模式也存在相应的变化。即使是各个普通法国家,各国的实践仍存在较大的区别,这与诉讼费用的制度安排和法律观念有很大的关系。第三人诉讼资助受到了多方面的质疑,主要涉及对接近正义价值实现的怀疑,诉讼程序的滥用以及诉讼主体与律师伦理问题等。针对这些问题,不少国家积极探索并在一定程度上发展了相关的监管措施,但还需要进一步完善。从长远来看,面对着日益严重的诉讼成本问题和大规模侵权频出的问题,诉讼资助对我国有重要的借鉴意义。

Third-party litigation funding（TPLF） is the litigation practice where a third party of no interest funds one litigation party.Historically, TPLF was once thought as a crime or tort.With the development of the society,the practice was gradually allowed by laws,and has been recently deemed to improve the overall social welfare of access to justice.Over the world, the level of development of TPLF in different countries varies,and so does the mode of funding.Even in the common-law countries, practices are quite different, mainly because of different institutional arrangements of litigation fees and different legal opinions.Doubts arise involving the realization of access of justice,the abuse of litigation proceeding,the subjectivity of litigation and the ethics of lawyers, etc.With regard to these matters, governments are actively exploring and developing related regulatory measures, but need further improvements.In the long run, as our country encounters the increasingly severe litigation costs and the commonly seen mass torts, TPLF will be of great significance to our country.