People's assessors play growing role in justice

China has seen a rapid increase in the number of people's assessors, who are playing a growing role in high-profile cases and helping uphold justice, according to a report submitted to lawmakers for deliberation.

By the end of June, China had 340,000 people's assessors, an increase of nearly 62 percent from 2018, when a law governing the system was enacted, according to the report delivered by Zhang Jun, president of the Supreme People's Court, on Tuesday at an ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature.

The report shows that assessors come from diverse backgrounds, with more than half being grassroots officials, farmers, gig workers and social workers.

China's people's assessor system allows ordinary citizens to sit alongside judges on judicial panels and participate in court proceedings. Assessors have the right to be informed, participate in trials, express their opinions and oversee judicial activities. Established in the 1930s, the system enables citizens to assist judges in examining evidence and deliberating on cases.

In April 2018, the NPC Standing Committee adopted a law regulating the selection, duties and conduct of people's assessors, which took immediate effect. "From then on, the work of assessors has entered a new stage in its history," Zhang said.

"Chinese courts have implemented the law to improve the system, striving to turn this institutional strength into a driving force for justice and social governance," he said.

Since the law took effect, people's assessors have participated in the handling of 15.5 million cases, bringing their diverse perspectives, life experience, understanding of criminal conduct and professional expertise to judicial proceedings, according to the report.

It also said that 33,000 assessors with specialized expertise have participated in 2.16 million cases involving intellectual property, environmental protection, finance, maritime affairs and foreign-related matters.

For example, in a case involving the labor contracts of a ship's crew, a court in Tianjin adopted the opinions of assessors with shipping expertise and ruled that the unpaid crew members had priority claims over the vessel. Following a judicial auction of the ship, the court ordered that nearly 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in outstanding wages owed to 88 crew members be paid in a lump sum.

In Hebei province, a court followed an assessor's advice on restoring sections of the Great Wall after learning that the assessor had spent more than a decade working in cultural relic protection.

In the case of Yu Huaying, assessors brought considerations of public order, good morals and fairness into the proceedings, playing an important role in comprehensively examining and evaluating Yu's criminal conduct and the devastating consequences for the victims' families.

Yu abducted and trafficked 17 children for financial gain between 1993 and 2003. She was executed in February 2025 after China's top court approved her death sentence.

While affirming the progress made, Zhang also highlighted new challenges arising from increasingly diverse public expectations. He called for further efforts to ensure that assessors can fully express their opinions during judicial proceedings, rather than merely appear in court, and receive greater support and services, including personal accident insurance.

Under Chinese law, citizens aged 28 or older who abide by the law and have good conduct are eligible to serve as people's assessors. In most cases, they are selected at random. Lawyers, notaries, arbitrators and certain other professionals are excluded from serving.