Abstract:

There have been controversies over whether branch companies have in dependent capacity of litigation. Both
the German Code of Civil Procedure，which approbates the passive capacity of litigation of branch companies，and the Civil
Procedural Law of Japan，which approbates the positive capacity of litigation of branch companies，are the results of rational
considerations of facilitating the litigants. It’s a systematic path with self-consistent logic to approbate branch company’s
independent capacity of litigation with auxiliary system of subject change and addition in enforcement procedure which is based
on indirect expansion of the subjective scope of res judicata. Denying branch company’s independent capacity of litigation is
not only a misinterpretation of the provisions of substantive law that branch company cannot bear independent civil liability but
also ignores the theoretical reasons why the civil procedure law gives branch company the capacity of litigation. Although labor
dispute cases have particularity of their own，denying the branch company’s independent capacity of litigation in dealing with
such cases is totally against the legal theory and legislative requirements about“parties to the proceedings”，and contradict the
judicial interpretation and judicial practice，which accept individual businesses and branch insurance companies as individual
litigants.

Key words: branch company, parties to the proceedings, capacity of litigation, capacity of civil rights, labor dispute