Handling intersecting criminal and civil cases

Intersecting criminal and civil cases are often encountered in judicial practice in China. They refer to situations such as the following: When accepting and trying a civil dispute case or in the enforcement procedure for a civil case, the People’s Court discovers that the civil case additionally involves a suspected crime, where the legal facts of the civil and criminal case intersect and overlap such that, in terms of procedural handling and bearing of liability, the criminal and civil produce mutual effects. The issue of how to fully use the rules for handling intersecting criminal and civil procedures, and understanding the most recent developments to achieve claims that safeguard one’s own lawful rights and interests, is one deserving of in-depth exploration.

Q: What causes the intersection of the criminal and civil?
A: It can be traced to the partial or complete overlap of the legal facts that give rise to the criminal and civil cases. The major elements that go towards making up a legal fact include the author and victim of the act, the way in which the act is carried out, and the outcome of the act. More specifically, the overlap of legal facts means that one entity is both a criminal suspect and civil relationship entity; the property in question is both the target of the crime and the subject matter of the civil relationship; the criminal act is simultaneously a civil tort or contracting act; and the criminal act and civil law act may cause the same property loss or personal injury.

Q: Procedurally, what are the special rules for handling the intersection of the criminal and civil?
A: The principles of “criminal first, then civil”, of “criminal and civil in parallel” and “civil first, then criminal” have long existed in judicial practice in China. These rules were concretely manifested in the Notice on the Prompt Investigation and Handling of Economic Crimes Discovered in the Course of Economic Dispute Cases (repealed on 19 August 1985), the Notice on the Mandatory Prompt Transfer of Economic Crimes Discovered in the Course of the Trial of Economic Dispute Cases (repealed on 11 March 1987), and the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases of the Illegal Raising of Funds, the Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Certificate of Deposit Dispute Cases, the Provisions on Several Issues Concerning Suspected Economic Crimes Involved in the Trial of Economic Dispute Cases, the Civil Procedure Law, and the Provisions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law in the Trial of Private Lending Cases of the Supreme People’s Court, etc.

Xia Yibin is a partner, and Wang Yuansheng and Ma Yue are associates at AnJie Law Firm