先受理法院规则与国际平行诉讼问题的解决

The First-filed Rule and the International Parallel Litigation——The Feasibility of the Analogical Application of Article 35 of the Civil Procedure Law to Foreign-related Cases

"先受理法院规则"越来越成为国际上普遍采用的解决国际平行诉讼问题的基本规则。该规则具有简单明确的优点,可操作性强,可以使跨国民事诉讼管辖权具有更强的可预见性。该规则的一些缺陷可以通过引入灵活性修正机制得到很好弥补。随着我国对外民商事交往的日益扩大,我国法院与外国法院之间的平行诉讼问题必然会愈演愈烈。新修订的《民事诉讼法》对我国的涉外民事诉讼管辖权制度作了调整,将涉外案件的管辖权逐步纳入到非涉外案件的统一体系之内。这为我国法院解决国际平行诉讼问题提供了一个良好契机。只要把《民事诉讼法》第35条所规定的先受理法院规则稍作变通解释,就可以圆满地解决国际平行诉讼问题。最高人民法院新颁布的《关于适用〈中华人民共和国民事诉讼法)的解释》第533条未能将《民事诉讼法》第35条扩大适用于涉外案件,实属遗憾。先受理法院规则也存在一些限制和例外。专属管辖权和当事人协议管辖权可以排除该规则。为了避免当事人滥用该规则,可以采用预期承认原则和公平原则对其加以限制。

With the growth of transnational litigation,the issue of international litigations becomes a more common problem.What should a court do when a lawsuit involving the same parties and the same issues is already pending in the court of another country? Courts should adopt a modified first-filed principle to resolve this problem.Absent exceptional circumstances,courts should usually stay duplicative litigation so long as the first-filed foreign action has jurisdiction and its judgment can be recognized by the Chinese court.