and economic law. These are separated into different branches. For example, contract law is considered a branch of civil law. The latter includes civil procedure law, criminal procedure law and administrative procedure law. Civil law and Civil Procedure Law In 1986 the National People's Congress adopted the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China, which helped clarify the scope of the civil law. Article 2 of the document states that the civil law governs personal and property relationships between natural persons and legal persons having equal status. It covers a wide range of topics, including the General Principles, marriage law, property law, contract law, copyright law, and trademark law. From the point of view of some scholars, business law, such as corporation law, bankruptcy law, insurance law, and law on negotiable instruments, is distinguished from civil law. Up until 2021, the PRC did not have a single civil code in force. In its absence, the National People's Congress promulgated Marriage Law, Adoption Law, Succession Law, Contract Law, Law of Rights in Rem, Law of Tort Liability. The first part of the future Civil Code was General Provisions of Civil Law (《民法总则》) adopted in 2017, which was based on General Principles of Civil Law (《民法通则》) adopted in 1986. On May 28, 2020, the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China was adopted at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress. It came into force on January 1, 2021, on which day Marriage Law, Succession Law, General Principles of Civil Law, Adoption Law, Guarantee Law, Contract Law, Property Law, Tort Law, and General Provisions of Civil Law were repealed. Since the Civil Code of the People's Republic China does not include provisions regarding intellectual property, company, or labour, its promulgation did not affect Trademark Law, Patent Law, Copyright Law, Company Law, Partnership Enterprise Law, Labour Law, or Labour Contract Law, all of which remained in force as of 2021. The Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China was first adopted in 1991 and subsequently amended in 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2021. Civil procedural law advocates the principle of 'open trial' - a system in which the second instance is the final hearing, although a trial supervision system exists in civil litigation which will allow a limited number of cases being tried by the third instance. Enforcing judgments can prove particularly difficult. Criminal