Compared with recognition and enforcement of foreign court judgment relative to civil and commercial maters, Chinese law has made specific provisions in recognition and enforcement of foreign court divorce judgment. Supreme People’s Court issued the provisions on issues concerning acceptance by people’s courts of applications for recognizing divorce judgments of foreign courts on August, 13th, 1991 and the provisions on procedural issues concerning Chinese citizens’ applications for recognition of divorce judgment of foreign court on March, 1st, 2000.
If the country which the court is located has signed judicial assistance agreement (treaty) with China, recognition can be applied according to provisions of the agreement (treaty). (Foreign court divorce judgment which can be applied for recognition also includes the effective divorce mediation agreement made by foreign court.)
If there is no judicial assistance agreement (treaty), the party who is Chinese may apply to people’s court according to the provisions of the above two special law provisions.
I Who can apply for recognition and enforcement of foreign court divorce judgment?
People who apply for recognition and enforcement of foreign court divorce judgment should be Chinese citizen, but in the event that a foreign citizen applies for recognition of a divorce judgment of a foreign court, people’s court shall accept the application if the former spouse of the applicant, who is involved in the said divorce judgment, is a Chinese citizen.
II Application for recognition of legal relationship.
The recognition will be limited in the legal relationship involved in the divorce judgment; recognition and enforcement of marital property division, burden of living cost, child care expenses etc, won’t be applied to the provisions on issues concerning acceptance by people’s courts of applications for recognizing divorce judgments of foreign courts. So, if the party wants to apply for enforcement of marital property division, burden of living cost, child care expenses etc, he/she should bring another lawsuit to court, otherwise people’s court won’t execute the above request.
III Which court should you submit the relevant documents to?
Application of applicant should be submitted to Intermediate People’s Court of the applicant’s place of domicile; when place of domicile and habitual residence is inconsistent, applicant should submit documents to Intermediate People’s Court of habitual residence. And if applicant is not in China, he/she should submit documents to Intermediate People’s Court of his/her original domestic domicile.
After acceptance of application, people’s court will decide whether file the case in seven days; once the case is filed, collegiate bench composed by three judges will hear the case. What we should notice is that, verdict made by the collegiate bench will be the final verdict, which means it can’t be appealed.
IV What should you submit when applying for recognition of foreign court divorce judgment?
When applying for recognition of foreign court divorce judgment, we should submit the written application, the original divorce judgment of foreign court and the Chinese translation which certified correct.
The written application should indicate the following issues:
1. Name, gender, age, work unit, address of applicant;
2. Country, results, time, effective time of the judgment;
3. Situation of being summoned to respond the lawsuit;
4. Reasons for application and the claim;
5. Description of other.
V The situation of refusing to recognize
According to article 12 of the provisions on issues concerning acceptance by people’s courts of applications for recognizing divorce judgments of foreign courts, when divorce judgment of foreign court meets one of the following occasions, people’s court will refuse to recognize the divorce judgment.
1. Divorce judgment hasn’t been effective yet;
2. Foreign court who made the divorce judgment has no jurisdiction over the case;
3. The judgment was made without the defendant’s presence, and the defendant hasn’t been summoned to appear before court lawfully;
4. The divorce case of parties is being hearing or has been sentenced by Chinese people’s court, or the divorce case judgment by a court of a third country has been recognized by Chinese people’s court;
5. Divorce judgment contradicts the basic principles of the law of the People’s Republic of China, and violates State sovereignty, security and social and public interest of the country.