Public can search court cases on new online platform

A new online archive platform for searching criminal and civil court cases opened to the public on Tuesday.

The platform, established by the Supreme People's Court, China's top court, aims to help unify verdict-rendering standards, optimize legal services and advance judicial transparency, Yang Wanming, vice-president of the SPC, told a news conference on Tuesday.

So far, 3,711 cases have been uploaded. The cases concern several hot legal issues, including cyberbullying, telecom fraud, food safety, self-defense and domestic violence, he said.

People can search for the cases on https://rmfyalk.court.gov.cn. While reading about the cases, visitors can learn about what laws were applied and why the courts arrived at their verdicts.

Yang said that the uploaded cases were not only provided by courts nationwide, but also by lawyer associations, law academies and even non-legal institutes, including a middle school. All of them were reviewed and deemed to have reference value by the top court before being put online.

"The archive will be a new source for the public to use to learn about how to use laws to protect themselves, so as to enhance their legal awareness and prevent disputes from the start," he said.

"With the adoption of new laws and the application of fresh judicial interpretations, cases uploaded on the platform will also be updated in a timely manner to ensure users can access the latest and accurate legal knowledge," he added.

Yang stressed that China Judgements Online, a website established by the top court for disclosing rulings in 2013, will not be shut down. He noted that the two platforms will complement each other and will jointly help improve judicial transparency to meet the public's stronger legal demands.