Government and Policy

New law to make conflict-solving neighborhood issue

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-22 22:50

BEIJING - Wanted: good citizens who are "righteous, sociable and warm-hearted," and willing to step into a dispute and knock heads together.

Those would be the requirements for members of people's mediation committees, which would be set up around China under a draft law that went before the country's top legislature Tuesday for its first review.

The People's Mediation Law would encourage people to settle disputes at neighborhood-level, outside of courts and arbitration.

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Mediation was the "first line of defense" for solving social disputes and maintaining social stability, said Justice Minister Wu Aiying when introducing the draft law to the bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

In China, people traditionally regard going to court as a very serious move, so resolving disputes through mediation has become popular.

China has more than 4.9 million mediators, working in more than 800,000 mediation committees, according to the Ministry of Justice.

These organizations handled more than 7.67 million disputes last year, with a 97.2-percent resolution rate, while only 1 percent went on to litigation, said Wu.

The draft law would institutionalize the people's mediation committee as the legal organization to resolve everyday disputes. It sets down the procedure for establishing such an organization under community committees, such as the resident or villager committees.

Only those who are "righteous, sociable and warm-hearted," and with certain social and legal knowledge could be chosen as mediators, according to the draft.

The draft also sets down conflict-solving procedures and gives the mediation agreements legal effect with the confirmation of local courts.

It stipulates that if one party refuses to fulfill the decisions agreed, the other party can seek a court order to enforce the decisions.

With China's social and economic development, the focus of social disputes has extended from traditional family and neighborhood conflicts to issues concerning land contracts, relocation and health care, making a mediation law essential, Wu said.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, adopted the organization regulations on people's mediation committees in 1989. Three years later, the Supreme People's Court issued a judicial interpretation, stipulating that agreements signed after mediation by people's mediation committees were legally binding.

The Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, started its bimonthly session Tuesday.