牽連關係下民事案件審理進行之立法原理與裁量類型

If there is a connection between a civil dispute and another case that is pending, the criteria for discretion are still unclear as to whether the proceedings should to be continued in parallel or one case should be suspended until the other has been dealt with and terminated. Current laws and traditional“prejudicial relationship”theory have excessively expanded the scope of application of mandatory suspension, resulting in the lack of flexibility and stability during court hearings. In context of the expected codification, the PRC Civil Procedure Code de lege ferenda should stipulate the suspension of the current case as a matter of the judge's discretion and place it together with“consolidation and separation of claims”into the section of“case management of proceedings”under the Part of General Provisions. When the consolidation of claims as a priority is difficult to achieve, cases should, in principle, be heard in parallel. Mandatory suspension should only be applied to special circumstances regulated by the statute. For a discretionary suspension, it is necessary to set two application types. The type of“legal influence”refers to circumstances where the subject matter of another case forms a“preliminary issue”to that of the current case, which not only requires the dependence of the judgment of the current case on the subject matter of the other case according to substantive legal provisions, but also usually requires that the judgment of the other case will take effect for and against parties in the current case, giving a high possibility of conflicting judgments in the future. With respect to the type of“de facto influence”, such as“crossover of criminal and civil cases”, the criteria for discretion should be compared with the judge's own investigation, whether by citing another final judgment obvious advantages in avoiding unnecessary repeated hearings and promoting litigation economy can be foreseen.