Preliminary injunction

Preliminary injunction

The legal principles of " (preliminary injunction) and " (enforcement before judgment) are crucial instruments that Chinese courts utilize to guarantee the effective execution of court orders and to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of parties engaged in a dispute.

According to Article 100 of the People's Republic of China's Civil Procedure Law, a party to a lawsuit may request a preliminary injunction from the court to freeze or seize the other party's assets, order the other party to take certain actions, or forbid the other party from taking certain actions, to stop the aggrieved party from suffering additional losses as a result of the other party's behavior. If required, the court may also voluntarily impose a provisional injunction.


The court must hear a preliminary injunction application within 48 hours of receipt, and once it is, the injunction must be put into effect immediately. To get the injunction, the petitioner may need to provide security; if they do, their application can be accepted.

A party may get a preliminary injunction before bringing a lawsuit or initiating arbitration if they feel that doing so would cause irreparable harm to their legal rights and interests. The court should decide such applications within 48 hours of receipt, and shall be accompanied by adequate security.

If 30 days have passed after the preliminary injunction was issued and the party that sought it hasn't filed a lawsuit or initiated arbitration, the court must release the injunction.

Preliminary injunctions are restricted to the request's parameters and the relevant assets. The individual whose property has been impacted by the order must be informed. The court can order the freezing, seizure, or preserving in-protest property.

Suppose a party's life or livelihood is seriously impacted, and the other party can comply with the order. In that case, the court will grant an application for enforcement before judgment if the circumstances are appropriate. The application might be accepted if the applicant complies with the court's request for security for enforcement. If the request is approved, the applicant is responsible for making up any damages the opposing party incurs due to the early enforcement.

Generally speaking, preliminary injunctions and enforcement before judgment are significant legal instruments that assist parties to a dispute in protecting their interests and ensuring the effective implementation of court decisions.