Supreme People's Court, Arrangement for Mutual Entrustment with Service of Judicial Documents and Taking of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Cases by Courts in the Mainland and the Macao Special Administrative Region

Issued: August 27 2001
Effective: September 15 2001
Applicability: For the purposes of the Arrangement, "Civil or commercial cases" include labour dispute cases in the Mainland and civil labour cases in the Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR) (Article 1).

Main contents: According to the Arrangement, mutual entrustment with service of judicial documents and taking of evidence by courts in the Mainland and the Macao SAR shall be conducted by a superior people's court in the Mainland and the Court of Final Appeal in the Macao SAR (Article 2). The entrusted court shall execute the entrusted matter in accordance with the law to which it is subject (Article 6). While the entrusted court shall not refuse to execute the entrusted matter on the grounds that the law to which it is subject has exclusive jurisdiction over the case being heard by the entrusting court or that the law does not recognize the right of action underlying the case, it may refuse to execute the matter if its execution would contravene the basic legal principles or public interest of the Mainland (where the entrusted court is a people's court in the Mainland) or in the Macao SAR (where the entrusted court is a court in the Macao SAR) (Article 8). The Arrangement provides a procedure for service of judicial documents and taking of evidence under the Arrangement (Parts Two and Three).
Related legislation: PRC, Macao Special Administrative Region Basic Law