Putting the legal ball in a new court

Since they were established a little more than a year ago, China's first circuit courts have changed the country's legislative landscape. Cao Yin reports from Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

Looking back at the first year of the First Circuit Court in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Gao Xiaoli, who has worked as a chief judge at China's top court since 1994, said she has had no time to feel homesick, even though she only returns to Beijing once a month.

The new circuit courts, which act as branches of the Supreme People's Court, the nation's top legal tribunal, are part of a two-year pilot program related to ongoing reform of the judiciary. Before their foundation, all cases referred to the Supreme People's Court had to be heard in Beijing. 

Last month, President Xi Jinping said the reforms must be deepened to boost to the country's judicial credibility and the public's sense of security. Meanwhile, experts said the country's top court regards the establishment of circuit courts as one of the first steps in the reform process.

In January last year, the Supreme People's Court established China's first circuit courts. The first is in Shenzhen, a services center in the Pearl River Delta, and rules on disputes in the provinces of Guangdong and Hainan and in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, while the second is in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, and hears cases from Northeast China's traditional industrial provinces - Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang.

Circuit courts not only narrow the physical distance between the top court and litigants, but they also underscore the authorities' determination to reform the judicial system, experts said.