Answer: Foreigners, stateless persons, foreign enterprises and organizations can personally file lawsuits or respond to lawsuits in Chinese people’s courts, and engage in civil litigation activities, or entrust others to act on their behalf. However, if entrusting someone else to act as an agent in litigation, it shall comply with the provisions of the Civil Procedure Law:
If it is necessary to entrust a lawyer to represent the litigation, a lawyer from the People’s Republic of China must be appointed. This is because a country’s judicial system can only apply to its own country and cannot be extended to foreign countries. The lawyer system is an integral part of the national judicial system, and foreign lawyers participating in litigation activities in non domestic courts is related to a country’s judicial sovereignty. Any sovereign country does not allow foreign lawyers to perform their legal duties in their own country, otherwise it is equivalent to allowing foreign lawyers to interfere in their own judicial trials. In addition, the purpose of the parties entrusting lawyers to represent them in litigation is to seek legal assistance from lawyers. Foreign lawyers are not familiar with the laws of the country where the court is located, and entrusting lawyers from non country countries is often not helpful in resolving cases. Entrusting Chinese lawyers does not exclude foreign parties from entrusting their own citizens or citizens of other countries as litigation agents, does not exclude foreign embassy and consulate officials from serving as litigation agents for domestic parties in their personal names, and does not exclude foreign parties from entrusting Chinese citizens as litigation agents.
2. The Civil Procedure Law stipulates that foreign nationals, stateless persons, foreign enterprises and organizations without a domicile within the territory of the People’s Republic of China who entrust lawyers or other persons of the People’s Republic of China to act as agents in litigation shall have their power of attorney sent or entrusted from outside the territory of the People’s Republic of China certified by a notary public in the country where they are located, authenticated by the Chinese embassy or consulate in that country, or after completing the certification procedures stipulated in the relevant treaties between the People’s Republic of China and the country where they are located, before it becomes effective. A power of attorney is an important litigation document that indicates that the principal’s actions are exercised by the agent, and even the entity’s rights are disposed of. Therefore, the power of attorney must have authenticity and legality. According to the provisions of the Civil Procedure Law, a power of attorney sent or entrusted by a foreign party without a domicile in China from outside the territory of China must be certified by a notary public in the host country and authenticated by the Chinese embassy or consulate before its effectiveness can be recognized by the people’s court. If China has a relevant treaty with the country where the foreign party is located, and the foreign party has completed the certification procedures stipulated in the treaty, its power of attorney shall also be effective. For example, the judicial assistance agreements signed between China and Poland and other countries have provisions exempting authentication. Documents made or certified by the court or other competent authority of one contracting party and stamped with a seal do not need to be authenticated and can be used in the other contracting country. If the parties of the other contracting country complete the above procedures, their authorization and delegation will be valid. This regulation only applies to foreign parties without a domicile in China who send or entrust authorization letters from outside the territory of our country. For foreign parties who have a residence within the territory of our country, as well as those who do not have a residence within the territory of our country but only stay for a short period of time, such as traveling, visiting relatives, giving lectures, or engaging in business, a power of attorney shall be submitted without the need to go through notarization or authentication procedures.
