Legislative Updates (1.17-1.23) | 法宝双语新闻

Mainland and Macao SAR Revise and Improve Arrangement on Judicial Assistance for the First Time

On January 14, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued the Decision regarding Revision of the Arrangement on Mutual Service of Judicial Documents and Taking of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Proceedings between Courts of Mainland and of the Macao Special Administrative Region (hereinafter the ‘Arrangement’), and the revised text will go into effect on March 1, 2020.

The revised Arrangement stipulates that where people’s courts of Mainland and courts of the Macao SAR entrust the service of judicial documents and the taking of evidence to each other, they should forward the documents and evidence electronically through the judicial assistance network platform between the Mainland and Macao. At present, as a result of the joint efforts of the two sides, the construction of the platform has basically been completed and will be officially put into operation after the revised text of the Arrangement comes into effect.  

The Arrangement also provides that mutual service of documents and taking of evidence can be carried out between Macao's Court of Final Appeal and some intermediate people's courts, as well as grass-roots people's courts authorized by the SPC, thus eliminating the previous link of examination and forwarding by superior people's courts, while also promoting the efficiency of judicial assistance. In addition, the Arrangement has added provisions that allow witnesses to testify through video and audio.  

SPC and SPP Reply on Issues about Recidivism

Recently, the SPC and SPP issued the Reply of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate Regarding Whether a Probationer Should be Deemed as a Recidivist if he Commits a Crime For Which A Fixed-term Imprisonment Or A Heavier Penalty Shall Be Given after the expiration of Probation (hereinafter the ‘Reply’), effective from January 20, 2020. 

According to the Reply, within five years after the expiration of probation, where a convict sentenced to imprisonment and suspended commits a repeat crime for which a fixed-term imprisonment or a heavier penalty shall be given, he shall not be considered as a recidivist. This is due to the fact that the determination sentence for the previous crime has not been executed, and the requirement of "finishing serving a sentence" stipulated in Article 65 of the Criminal Law is not met. However, the repeat crime can be taken into account as a discretionary circumstance of a heavier penalty for determining the penalty for a new crime.

SASAC Issues Working Rules for Letter of Alert of State-owned Capital Supervision and the Working Rules for Notification of State-owned Capital Supervision

国务院国资委近日印发了《国资监管提示函工作规则》和《国资监管通报工作规则》。

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council recently issued the Working Rules for Letter of Alert of State-owned Capital Supervision (hereinafter the ‘Letter of Alert’) and the Working Rules for Notification of State-owned Capital Supervision (hereinafter the ‘Notification’).

The Letter of Alert highlights prior and current supervision, providing that the SASAC should remind state-owned enterprises of their oriented and emerging risks and problems, which is to ‘catch early and catch small’, focus on prevention, and give a priority to warnings. Therefore, state-owned enterprises are required to take active measures to implement and control risk prevention, implement rectification , improve the management and control of key links and key areas, strengthen the effective implementation of an internal control system, and ensure that risks are under control and that rectification is implemented.