Trade secret revealing in judicial authentication procedure not allowed

Recently, the Ministry of Justice issued the General Provisions on the Procedures for Judicial Authentication (hereafter, the General Provisions), requiring judicial authentication institutions and related authenticators to keep the state secrets, trade secrets and privacies they acquired during their judicial authentication activities.

The General Provisions exhaustively mention five aspects such as judicial authentication entrustment and handling, launching of judicial authentication and report issuance. The present Provisions are applicable to the various kinds of authentication activities conducted by the judicial authentication institutions. According to the Provisions, avoidance system should be applied to judicial authentication institutions and authenticators during their works according to related laws and this provisions. On the notices issued by the people's courts, judicial authenticators should appear in court as a witness and answer questions related to the authentication. Judicial authentication institutions and related authenticators should keep the state secrets, trade secrets and privacies they acquired during the judicial authentication activities. Without approvals from the trustors, judicial authentication institutions and authenticators should not reveal any information related to the authentication to other people or organizations, unless otherwise provided for by the laws and regulations.

The General Provisions are the general rules of procedures for judicial authentication institutions and authenticators in their judicial authentication activities. Special authentication procedures for specific realms can be formulated separately or follow the specific practices. The General Provisions will come into effect on October 1, 2007 and the General Provisions on the Procedures for Judicial Authentication (For Trial Implementation) issued by the Ministry of Justice on August 31, 2001, will be abrogated at the same time.