Thejudiciary of thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) is organized under the principle ofunified state power of theNational People's Congress (NPC) and is represented by its two primary judicial organs, theSupreme People's Court and theSupreme People's Procuratorate. These organs areconstitutionally inferior and accountable to the NPC as thesupreme state organ of power, and implement its political will.
Judicial independence andjudicial review are nonexistent, as courts do not have power beyond what is granted to them by the NPC. TheChinese Communist Party'sCentral Political and Legal Affairs Commission maintains effective control over the court system and its personnel.[1][2]Hong Kong andMacau have separate court systems in accordance with the "one country, two systems" doctrine.
According to theConstitution of the People's Republic of China of 1982 and theOrganic Law of the People's Courts that went into effect on January 1, 1980, the Chinese courts are divided into a four-level court system (Supreme, High, Intermediate and Primary):
Candidates for judgeship must pass theNational Unified Legal Professional Qualification Examination.[citation needed] All lawyers must take an oath pledging loyalty to theChinese Communist Party.[3]
The court system is paralleled by a hierarchy of prosecuting offices called people's procuratorates, the highest being the Supreme People's Procuratorate.[citation needed]
Local departments of justice can revoke the license of lawyers. This power is used to target lawyers who challenge the authority of the state, particularly human rights lawyers.[4]
The Supreme Court is responsible for establishing and monitoring legal procedures in adherence to the laws and orders made by the legislative organs.[citation needed]
Following civil law traditions, the courts do not establish legally-binding precedent. The Supreme Court has the right to publish legal explanations of laws which are legally-binding but the right to interpret the constitution is reserved by thelegislative organs.[citation needed]A verdict made by an inferior court can be challenged in its superior court, up to the Supreme Court, there are four levels of courts in total. A superior court can also designate any of its inferior courts to hear an appeal rather than do so itself.[citation needed]
Court proceedings in China are generally livestreamed, with exceptions including where classified information is discussed or where juveniles testify.[5]: 125
Besides the court system, it is also encouraged to resolve civil conflicts through a state-sponsored and -regulated mediation and arbitration system. After the first hearing of a civil case, the court is required by law to ask both parties if they are willing to resolve their conflict through mediation. If agreed, the court should assign a mediator and oversee the process. If both parties reach an agreement, it will be legally binding after the agreement is reviewed and documented by a judge of the court.[citation needed]
Courts allow litigants to communicate with it viaWeChat, through which the litigant parties can file lawsuits, participate in proceedings, present evidence, and listen to verdicts.[5]: 125 As of December 2019, more than 3 million litigants had used WeChat for litigation.[5]: 125
.svg)
TheCriminal Law of the People's Republic of China is the code that stipulates crimes and criminal liability applicable in the country. Among them, the Criminal Law is abasic law of the People's Republic of China. On the basis of the Criminal Law, there are other separate laws that stipulate new crimes and penalties. As of 2023, the Criminal Law consists of a Criminal Code, twelve amendments, and one or two separate laws.
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(June 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Between theAnti-Rightist Campaign of 1957 and the legal reforms of 1979, the courts—viewed by the leftists as troublesome and unreliable—played only a small role in the judicial system. Most of their functions were handled by other party or government organs. In 1979, however, theNational People's Congress began the process of restoring the judicial system. The world was able to see an early example of this reinstituted system in action in the showcase trial of theGang of Four and six other members of the "Lin-Jiang clique" from November 1980 to January 1981 (see theFour Modernizations). The trial, which was publicized to show that China had restored a legal system that made all citizensequal before the law, actually appeared to many foreign observers to be more a political than a legal exercise. Nevertheless, it was intended to show that China was committed to restoring a judicial system.[citation needed]
TheMinistry of Justice, abolished in 1959, was re-established under the 1979 legal reforms to administer the newly restored judicial system. With the support of local judicial departments and bureaus, the ministry was charged with supervising personnel management, training, and funding for the courts and associated organizations and was given responsibility for overseeinglegal research and exchanges with foreign judicial bodies.[citation needed]
The 1980Organic Law of the People's Courts (revised in 1983) and the 1982State Constitution established four levels of courts in the general administrative structure.Judges are elected or appointed by people's congresses at the corresponding levels to serve a maximum of two five-year terms. Mosttrials are administered by a collegial bench made up of one to three judges and three to five assessors. Assessors, according to the State Constitution, are elected by local residents or people's congresses from among citizens over twenty-three years of age with political rights or are appointed by the court for theirexpertise. Trials are conducted by theinquisitorial system, in which both judges and assessors play an active part in thequestioning of all witnesses. This contrasts with theadversarial system, in which the judge is meant to be an impartial referee between two contending attorneys. After the judge and assessors rule on a case, they pass sentence. An aggrieved party can appeal to the next higher court.[citation needed]
The Organic Law of the People's Courts requires that adjudication committees be established for courts at every level. The committees usually are made up of the president, vice presidents, chief judges, and associate chief judges of the court, who are appointed and removed by the standing committees of the people's congresses at the corresponding level. Theadjudication committees are charged with reviewing major cases to find errors in determination of facts or application of law and to determine if achief judge should withdraw from a case. If a case is submitted to the adjudication committee, the court is bound by its decision. The Supreme People's Court stands at the apex of the judicial structure. Located in Beijing, it has jurisdiction over all lower and special courts, for which it serves as the ultimate appellate court. It is directly responsible to theNational People's Congress Standing Committee, which elects the court president.[citation needed]
China also has 'special'military,rail transport,water transport, andforestry courts. These courts hear cases ofcounter-revolutionary activity,plundering,bribery,sabotage, orindifference to duty that result in severe damage to military facilities, work place, or government property or threaten the safety of soldiers or workers.[6]
Military courts make up the largest group of special courts and try alltreason andespionage cases. Although they are independent of civilian courts and directly subordinate to theMinistry of National Defense, military court decisions are reviewed by the Supreme People's Court. Special military courts were first established in 1954 to protect the special interests of all commanders, political commissars, and soldiers, but they ceased to function during theCultural Revolution (1966–76). Military courts and procuratorates were reinstituted in October 1978, and open military trials resumed in December of that year.[citation needed]
In April 1986, at the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People's Congress, theGeneral Principles of the Civil Code was approved. It is the main source of civil law in the PRC and seeks to provide a uniform framework for interpreting the PRC's civil laws.[7]
In 2007, the doctrine of theThree Supremes was introduced underHu Jintao, mandating that the judiciary subordinate written law to the interests of the CCP.[8]
In 2013, the SPC issued Opinions Concerning Sentencing Guidelines for Frequently Committed Offences, which aimed to achieve consistency in sentencing for similar offenses. Therefore, China divided the guidelines into four sections: the guiding principles of sentencing, basic sentence methodology, applications of common mitigating and aggravating factors, and sentences for common offences.[9] These guidelines introduced a methodology for calculating sentences, involving three components: a sentencing starting point, a baseline sentence, and a final sentence. The starting point was determined based on the primary constituent facts of a crime, while the baseline sentence considered secondary facts related to the offense. A final sentence was derived from an adjusted baseline sentence, considering various mitigating and aggravating factors. However, these guidelines were only applicable to less serious offenses, leaving serious crimes without specific guidance.[9]
From 2014 to 2017, the judicial system underwent significant reform aimed at curbing judicial favoritism.[10]: 212 Among the key reform provisions was recentralizing personnel appointments and fiscal management of basic and intermediate courts, with these decisions now being made by provincial governments.[10]: 212
In 2015, China began publishing all court decisions in civil and criminal cases across all tiers of the judiciary.[5]: 125 This database, the China Judgment Online database, is the world's largest collection of judicial decisions.[10]: 141 Although the Supreme People's Court mandates that all local courts upload their judgments, the local courts' compliance with this mandate varies.[10]: 41 In 2021, millions of court verdicts were removed, including allcapital punishment verdicts.[11] In 2023, administrative proceedings were also removed.[12]
The Supreme People's Court in 2018 began promoting the Mobile Micro Court app.[10]: 207 As of March 2020, over 1.3 million people had used the Mobile Micro Court app and over 437,000 cases had been filed through it.[10]: 207
In 2019, the city ofHangzhou established a pilot program artificial intelligence-basedInternet Court to adjudicate disputes related to ecommerce and internet-relatedintellectual property claims.[5]: 124 Parties appear before the court via videoconference andAI evaluates the evidence presented and applies relevant legal standards.[5]: 124 Following the Hangzhou Internet Court, the Beijing Internet Court and Guangzhou Internet Court were established.[10]: 206 In these courts, all aspects of the judicial process from case filing through conclusion are handled online.[10]: 206 Major cities including Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Chengdu have established specialized court divisions for cases arising from online disputes.[10]: 206
The Chinese government is also promoting the development of a "smart court" system to increase the use of technology such as artificial intelligence and blockchain to streamline proceedings.[10]: 206 The Hangzhou Internet Court was the first court in China to accept blockchain evidence to prove the content of a website at a particular point in time, rather than the public notary method traditionally used to do so.[5]: 124–125
In February 2023, theGeneral Office of the Chinese Communist Party issued a text titledOpinions on Strengthening Legal Education and Legal Theory Research in the New Era that called for purging "Western erroneous views" from legal education, includingconstitutional government,separation of powers, andjudicial independence.[13]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. China: A Country Study.Federal Research Division.
_cap_insignia.svg)
.png)
