On the afternoon of May 13, 2026, an academic lecture titled "Several Thoughts on Fundamentally Solving the 'Difficulty of Enforcement' Through Institutional Reform" was successfully held in Conference Room 434, Xingmin Building, Xianlin Campus, Nanjing Normal University. The lecture featured Grand Justice Du Wanhua, former Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Advisory Committee of the Supreme People's Court and former Vice-Ministerial Level Member of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court, as the keynote speaker. The event was moderated by Professor Fang Le, Dean of the Nanjing Normal University School of Law. Professors Li Hao, Liu Min, Wu Yingzi, Ma Ding, Associate Professor Liu Yun, and Lecturer Wang Jiamin participated throughout the session. Deputy Director Du Sanjun of the Enforcement Bureau of the Jiangsu Provincial High People's Court, along with Judges Zhang Zhongye and Zou Hao, attended for academic exchange. Undergraduate and graduate students from the School of Law were also present.

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At the outset of the lecture, Dean Fang Le extended a warm welcome and sincere gratitude to Grand Justice Du Wanhua for taking time out of his busy schedule to attend. He acknowledged Grand Justice Du's outstanding contributions to the fields of civil and commercial law, civil procedure law, and judicial reform in China, and expressed heartfelt thanks for his long-term support and care for the academic development of the School of Law at Nanjing Normal University. Subsequently, Professor Liu Min reviewed Grand Justice Du Wanhua's academic journey, noting that his work spans multiple fields including legal philosophy, civil law, and civil procedure law. During his long tenure in civil adjudication at the Supreme People's Court, Grand Justice Du oversaw important areas such as commercial and civil trials, family trial reform, and bankruptcy trials, and was deeply involved in the drafting and revision of the Civil Code and the Civil Procedure Law.

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In his lecture, Grand Justice Du Wanhua elaborated on the theme of "Fundamentally Solving the Difficulty of Enforcement Through Institutional Reform" from the perspectives of historical evolution, analysis of judicial work mechanisms, practical conflicts, and renewal of institutional concepts. He first reviewed the historical evolution of China's civil judicial operation mechanism. He pointed out that in the early stage of reform and opening up, the functions of filing, trial, and enforcement within courts were intertwined. It was only around 1998 that the Supreme People's Court promoted the separation of filing from trial, trial from judicial supervision, and trial from enforcement, initially forming a three-stage operational mechanism of "filing — trial — enforcement."

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Next, Grand Justice Du elaborated on the practical conflicts and drawbacks of the three-stage mechanism. The normal functioning of the "filing-trial-enforcement" mechanism presupposes that the debtor has sufficient assets to fulfill the obligations. However, when the debtor's assets are insufficient to cover all debts, judicial practice sees the emergence of "three races" — racing to file a case, racing to obtain a judgment, and racing to enforce — as well as "three delays" — delays in filing, delays in trial, and delays in enforcement. These phenomena lead to judicial corruption, jurisdictional disputes, selective enforcement, and other disorders. Although courts have over the years adopted various measures such as centralized asset liquidation, information inquiries, blacklists of dishonest judgment debtors, participation in distribution of assets, and closing cases due to unenforceability (finale), none have fundamentally solved the problem.
Based on these drawbacks, Grand Justice Du argued that to fundamentally solve the difficulty of enforcement through institutional reform, a fourth stage — bankruptcy protection — must be introduced in addition to the three stages of filing, trial, and enforcement, forming a new judicial operation mechanism that organically connects "filing, trial, enforcement, and bankruptcy." He systematically elaborated on five aspects of institutional construction in this direction: improving the corporate bankruptcy protection system, exploring the establishment of a personal bankruptcy protection system, improving the bankruptcy system for unincorporated organizations, establishing a court-government coordination mechanism, and improving the bankruptcy administrator system.
During the discussion session, Professor Wu Yingzi highly commended Grand Justice Du Wanhua's lecture for its historical depth, theoretical richness, and practical relevance. She noted that the crux of the enforcement difficulty lies in the debtor's inability to perform, and that measures such as ending enforcement due to unenforceability and participation in distribution are only temporary fixes — introducing bankruptcy is the fundamental solution. Professor Ma Ding remarked that Grand Justice Du Wanhua's lecture not only systematically traced the historical evolution of the enforcement system but also, in the manner of oral history, reconstructed key milestones in civil judicial reform since the reform and opening up — an enlightening experience. Associate Professor Liu Yun noted that Grand Justice Du delivered his lecture with passion and humor, making complex institutional issues captivating, allowing the attending faculty and students to gain profound academic insights and practical reflections in a relaxed atmosphere. Du Sanjun, Deputy Director of the Enforcement Bureau of the Jiangsu Provincial High People's Court, shared his practical observations, arguing that solving the enforcement difficulty cannot rely solely on enforcement intensity but must be driven by institutional innovation, and that "transfer from enforcement to bankruptcy" represents a promising direction worthy of deeper exploration.

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In his concluding remarks, Dean Fang Le noted that Grand Justice Du Wanhua's lecture provided a splendid academic feast for the entire school, offering important insights into the construction of a new judicial operation mechanism that organically connects "filing, trial, enforcement, and bankruptcy."
The lecture came to a successful conclusion amid warm applause.

Text by: Li Chaolong
Photos by: Graduate Student Union of the School of Law