SPC Issued the Revised Provisions on the Causes of Actions for Civil Cases
On December 17, 2025, the Supreme People’s Court of the PRC (SPC) officially issued the “Decision on Amending the Provisions on the Causes of Action for Civil Cases” (Fa [2025] No. 226) and the “Notice on Issuing the Amended Provisions on the Causes of Action for Civil Cases” (Fa [2025] No. 227), making the third amendment to the “Provisions on the Causes of Civil Cases”. Both were adopted at the 1960th meeting of the Judicial Committee of the SPC on December 4, 2025, and have taken effect since January 1, 2026.
The revised Provisions now include 12 first-level causes of action, 59 second-level causes of action, 514 third-level causes of action, and 470 fourth-level causes of cation, totaling 1,055. Specific revisions include: adding causes of action relating to data and virtual network property to support the development of new quality productive forces, and further refining causes of action relating to intellectual property rights; improving causes of action relating to competition disputes and commercial disputes to support the building of a rule-of-law business environment; refining causes of action relating to maritime and commercial matters to meet the needs of maritime adjudication and strengthen foreign-related rule-of-law development; improving causes of action relating to rural collective economic organizations and farmers’ professional cooperatives to support the comprehensive rural revitalization; improving causes of action relating to the pressing and long-anticipated areas for the people such as new forms of employment and the protection of the elderly’s rights and interests to continuously improve the public well-being; refining causes of action relating to the environmental and resources to contribute to the construction of a Beautiful China.
Additionally, the modification further refines the third-level causes of action corresponding to civil cases that may be represented by lawyers who are residents of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, and enriches the fourth-level causes of action under these third-level categories, thereby expanding the types of cases that Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan lawyers may represent, and further facilitating them in better integration into the country's overall development.
(Source: www.court.gov.cn)