Taiwan

Provincial-level courts get right to handle Taiwan cases

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-17 07:00

BEIJING - China's Supreme People's Court on Thursday promulgated a judicial interpretation which authorizes the mainland's provincial-level high courts to handle legal cases with parties in Taiwan.

Chinese mainland and Taiwan signed an agreement on jointly cracking down on crimes and mutual judicial assistance in April 2009. The two sides agreed to cooperate on cross-Strait judicial issues such as legal documents delivery and evidence collection.

The new judicial interpretation will come into effect on June 25, which will allow mainland's authorized high courts to directly deal with the cross-Straits legal documents delivery.

The cooperation of evidence collection through investigation between the mainland and Taiwan will still be handled by the Supreme People's Court, said the interpretation.

To provide a more efficient services for people on both sides, the interpretation rules that mainland's courts should finish legal documents requested by parties in Taiwan within two months and evidence assistance within three months.