The legal relations paradigm refers to the mode of thinking that takes legal relations as the systemic cornerstone, basic methodology, and core concept of civil law. This paradigm runs through the fields of civil law as well as civil procedure law. In civil procedure law, it is specifically embodied in the fields of the cause of action, the object of action, the burden of proof, the system of the parties, and the manner of civil trial. Although this paradigm has made historic contributions to civil justice in China, it has many drawbacks. From the perspective of the history of private law, it can be found that the legal relations paradigm, whether Savigny-style, Soviet-style, or local-style, is defective in abstraction or ethicality. As a result, this paradigm is unable to undertake the important task of systematizing civil law or serving as the basic methodology of civil justice. The paradigm of legal relations should be replaced by the paradigm of rights, and the right of claim should play a fundamental role in the paradigm of rights, so as to achieve the systematization of substantive procedural norms in civil procedure law and promote the reform of litigation procedure law. |