德国的小额裁量程序及其启示

German Small Discretionary Procedure and Its Enlightenment

为提升人民法院解决民事纠纷的整体效率,缓解“案多人少”的矛盾。我国展开了以小额诉讼的构建为核心的繁简分流程序改革。在德国,围绕小额案件建立特别程序以实现纠纷迅速解决的司法改革早在2001年就已基本完成,并在此后的20年里积累了大量理论及实践经验。2021年12月24日修改通过的《民事诉讼法》对小额诉讼进行了重要修订,从小额诉讼的基本理念出发,对比德国小额裁量程序,我国小额诉讼程序在标的额基准的合理划定、诉讼程序的进一步简化及救济途径的建立上仍有进一步完善的空间。德国的小额裁量程序对我国小额诉讼程序的完善具有一定的启示意义。

In order to enhance the overall efficiency of the courts in resolving civil disputes and to alleviate the conflict of "too many cases and too few judges". China has launched a reform of the separation between complicated cases and simple ones with the construction of the small claim procedure as the core. In Germany, the judicial reform to establish special procedures for the speedy resolution of disputes in small cases was basically completed as early as 2001, and a lot of theoretical and practical experience has been accumulated in the following 20 years. The Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China amended and adopted on 24 December 2021 has made significant amendments to small claim procedure. From the basic concept of the small claim procedure and in comparison with the small discretionary procedure in Germany, there is still room for further improvement in China’s small claim procedure in terms of the reasonable delineation of the benchmark of the subject matter, the further simplification of judicial proceedings and the establishment of the avenues of relief. Germany’s small discretionary procedure have certain enlightenment for the improvement of small claim procedure in China.