Provisions on Several Issues on the Application of Law in Handling Cases of Personal Safety Protection Orders

Promulgation Date: 2022-7-14
Title: The Supreme People's Court's Provisions on Several Issues on the Application of Law in Handling Cases of Personal Safety Protection Orders 
Document Number:法释〔2022〕17号
Expiration date: 
Promulgating Entities: Supreme People's Court
Source of text: https://www.court.gov.cn/fabu-xiangqing-366021.html

These provisions are drafted on the basis of the PRC Civil Code, Domestic Violence Law, Civil Procedure Law, and other related laws, and in consideration of actual trial practice, so as to correctly handle cases of personal safety protection orders and to promptly protect the lawful rights and interests of victims of domestic violence.

Article 1: Where parties apply to people's courts for a personal safety protection order in accordance with the Domestic Violence Law because they have suffered domestic violence or face an actual threat of domestic violence, people's courts shall accept it.

Raising a civil proceeding such as for divorce is not a requirement for applying to the people's courts for a personal safety protection order.

Article 2: Where parties are unable to apply for a personal safety protection order for reasons such as age, disability, or serious illness, then based on the party's wishes, their relatives, the public security organs, civil affairs departments, women's federation, residents' committees, villagers' committees, Disabled Persons Federations, lawfully-established organizations for seniors, aid management bodies, and so forth may apply on their behalf in accordance with article 23 of the Domestic Violence Law; and the people's courts shall accept it in accordance with law.

Article 3: Where conduct that is physically or emotionally harmful is carried out between family members through means such as cold, hunger, regular insult, defamation, following, or harassment, it shall be found to be "domestic violence" as provided for in article 2 of the Domestic Violence Law.

Article 4: "Persons other than family members who live together" as used in article 37 of the Domestic Violence Law usually includes daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, either spouse's parents, and other people with relationships such as for guardianship, support, foster care who live together.

Article 5: Where parties and their agents cannot collect evidence themselves for objective reasons and apply to the people's court to collect it, the people's court shall do so in situations conforming to those provided for in the first paragraph of article 94 of the Supreme People's Court's Interpretation on the Application of the People's Republic of China Civil Procedure Law.

Where after review, the people's courts find that evidence necessary to handle the case meets the conditions for in the first paragraph of article 96 of the Supreme People's Court's Interpretation on the Application of the People's Republic of China Civil Procedure Law. they shall collect the evidence.

Article 6: In personal safety protection order cases, the people's courts may issue a personal safety protection order in accordance with law where they find based on the relevant evidence that there is a larger likelihood that the applicant has suffered domestic violence or faces an actual threat of domestic violence.

"Relevant evidence" as used in the preceding paragraph includes:

(1) the statements of the parties;

(2) Written warnings or administrative punishment decision documents issued by the public security organs for domestic violence;

(3) Dispatch records, interrogation records, records of questioning, records of receiving reports, written acknowledgements of receiving calls, etc.;

(4) Written statements of remorse or guarantees issued by the subject of the application;

(5) Audiovisual materials that have recorded the occurrence of domestic violence or its resolution;

(6) Phone recordings, text messages, instant messaging information, e-mail, and so forth between the subject of the application and the applicant or their close relatives;

(7) Diagnostic and treatment records from medical establishments;

(8) Complaints, responses, or requests for help received by applicants' or subject of the applications' unit, civil affairs departments, residents' committees, villagers' committees, women's federations, Disabled Persons Federations, child protection organizations, lawfully-established organizations for seniors, aid management bodies, social public interest establishments for countering domestic violence, and other such units;

(9) Testimony from minor children appropriate for their age and cognitive ability or testimony from family and friends, neighbors, or other testimony;

(10) Evaluation opinions on injuries;

(11) other evidence that can show that the applicants have suffered domestic violence or face an actual threat of domestic violence.

Article 7: People's courts may question the subject of the application through convenient methods such as online litigation platforms, telephone, text message, instant messaging, or email. Where the subject of the application does not express views, it does not impact the courts' issuance of a personal safety protection order in accordance with law.

Article 8: Where the subject of the application acknowledges the domestic violence but counters that the applicant is at fault, it does not impact the people's courts' issuance of personal safety protection orders in accordance with law.

Article 9: In divorce cases, where parties argue that domestic violence exists solely on the grounds that the people's court has previously issued a personal safety protection order, the people's court shall comprehensively review whether there it exists based on article 108 of the Supreme People's Court Interpretation on the Application of the PRC Civil Procedure Law.

Article 10: "Other measures to protect the applicant's physical safety" as used in article 29(4) of the Domestic Violence Law may include the following measures:

(1) Prohibiting the subject of the application from berating, defaming, or threatening the applicant and their family through means such as phone, text, instant messaging tool, or e-mail;

(2) Prohibiting the subject of the application from engaging in activities that might interfere with the normal lives, study, or work of the applicant and their family within a set range from the vicinity of their residences', schools, workplaces, and other places they are regularly present;

Article 11: In divorce cases, where following a judgment to not grant divorce or reconciliation through mediation the subject of the application violates a personal safety protection order and perpetrates domestic violence, it may be found to be "new circumstances or new grounds" as provided for in article 127(7) of the Civil Procedure Law.

Article 12: Where the subject of the application violates a personal safety protection order as conforming with the provisions of article 313 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, it is to be tried and punished as the crime of refusal to implement a judgment or ruling; and where other crimes are constituted at the same time it is to be addressed in accordance with the relevant provisions of the criminal law.

Article 13: These Provisions will come into force on August 1, 2022.