SPC issues white papers on judicial reform, transparency

By Jiang Xingguang (english.court.gov.cn) Updated : 2017-02-28

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) of China issued white papers on the judicial reform of Chinese courts and their judicial transparency on Feb 27.

Li Shaoping, vice president of the SPC, attended the meeting, introduced relevant information and answered questions from the press.

Main framework of reform

The SPC released a total of 43 reform documents throughout 2016. Of the 65 reform measures put forward by the SPC, 60 have been fully implemented. 

Judges are shouldering more responsibility in the new round of judicial reform. From 28 high courts, 363 intermediate courts and 2,644 lower-level courts, 105,433 judges were selected to play a bigger role in case hearings.

The SPC has built four platforms to make judicial process, judicial documents, execution information and court hearings open to the public.

China Judgments Online, covering more than 200 countries and regions, has posted more than 26 million written judgments so far, and received a total of 5.5 billion visits. It has become the world's largest judicial document platform.

Judicial responsibility reform

Li said judicial responsibility reform plays a key role in deepening China's reform of the overall judicial system.

Over the past year, reform of judicial responsibility has been implemented in various courts at different levels across the country. Some problems in pilot programs were corrected and addressed gradually, according to Li.

Li said that human resources allocation in courts had improved, and the number of cases heard and closed risen significantly.

Multiple dispute settlement

In the face of large numbers of cases, we must be innovative and optimize the allocation of resources, said Li. Multiple dispute settlement mechanisms -- relying on the Party committee and governments as well as society -- should be encouraged, he added.

Since the reforms are entering deep water, said Li, disputes are on the rise as is the number of cases of various kinds. In 2016, the people's courts of all levels in China accepted and heard 23,056 million cases, up 18.1 percent from a year earlier. More than 2,300 litigation centers were set up across the country. 

Altogether, 419 courts opened online mediation platforms with a total of 2,390 online mediators.

By the end of 2016, courts of various levels in China had set up nearly 20,000 special mediation organizations with more than 60,000 mediators. Of the 1.01 million cases filed with the courts, 538,000 were mediated.

Correct wrongful convictions

In 2016, courts in China corrected 11 major unjust, false and erroneous cases involving 17 people, a record high.

From 2013 to 2016, courts at all levels in the country lawfully acquitted 3,718 defendants.

In recent years, the SPC, in conjunction with relevant departments, released guidance on trial-centered criminal procedure reform.

Li called for resolutely implementing a series of litigation principles, including strict adherence to the law, the presumption of innocence, and evidence-based judgments.

More sense of gain

We will keep on deepening the reform of the case filing system, said Li.

Around 16.30 million cases were filed in courts in China in 2016, 95 percent of them at a convenient central filing registry or online, according to Li. 

Courts in China will simplify the case filing procedure, put more emphasis on information technology, improve the online registration platform, explore cross-domain case filing, and improve work efficiency.

In 2016, people's courts of various levels accepted 43 environmental non-profit cases filed in accordance with the law. Eleven major cases, including the "Tengger Desert pollution case" were closed.

Break law enforcement difficulty

In 2016, the Central Deepening Reform Commission following a suggestion submitted by the SPC released a disciplinary measure containing 11 classes of 37 concrete measures to fight against judgment defaulters.

So far, people's courts have published 6.73 million cases of people subject to execution who have ignored court orders.

Various departments and organizations, including those involved with industrial, commercial and market supervision, are involved in the campaign against the defaulters.