Recently, the Supreme People's Court ("SPC") and the Supreme People's Procuratorate ("SPP") have jointly released the Interpretations on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases Involving False Litigation (the "Interpretations"), with effect from October 1, 2018.

Twelve articles in the Interpretations embrace different aspects of criminal behaviors in bringing false litigation, including the identification of such criminal behaviors, the criteria of conviction and sentencing, punishment principles for the concurrence of crimes, understanding of criminal policies, and determination of the territorial jurisdiction. Further, the Interpretations expressly state that, where a party, either by itself or in malicious collusion with others, forges a fake civil legal relationship and invents a civil dispute by fabricating evidence and making false representations, thereby filing a civil action to the court, such practice shall be identified as a criminal behavior in bringing false litigation as mentioned in the Criminal Law; applying to the court for enforcing an arbitration award or a notarized document for the creditor's rights which is rendered on the basis of a made-up story, or raising an objection to the subject matter to be enforced or applying for gaining benefits distributed from the property to be enforced, on the basis of a made-up story, will fall into the scope of criminal behaviors in bringing false litigation as provided in the Criminal Law. Furthermore, the Interpretations provide that, a criminal case involving the false litigation shall fall under the jurisdiction of a court at the place where the court accepting the false civil action or the court in charge of the enforcement is located.

(Source: SPC)