Top judge promises more court reforms

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 11, 2004

Top judge promises more court reforms

China's top judge Wednesday pledged for continued efforts in court reform this year, following the completion of the first five-year reform programme.

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China's top judge Wednesday pledged for continued efforts in court reform this year, following the completion of the first five-year reform programme.

Xiao Yang, president of the Supreme People's Court, also said that in 2004 judges will aim to guarantee a stable social environment, provide judicial guarantee for the socialist market economy and protect the legitimate rights of the public.

Xiao made his remarks to deputies at the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) while reporting on the work of the Supreme People's Court.

The annual report has been attracting wide public attention since the mid-1990s when criticism of the courts was at its highest.

According to Xiao, priorities in court reform will lie in the improvement in the lay assessors' system, enhancement of the power of the collegiate bench, the establishment of a mechanism for better verdict enforcement under unified management and co-ordination and better personnel management of judges to improve their proficiency.

The first five-year reform programme was completed by the end of last year. The court listed its 39 goals as "reached."

"The people's courts reformed the way trials are conducted, the trial mechanism, verdict enforcement mechanism and the building-up of a contingent of proficient judges," said Xiao. "Remarkable progress has been made in improving the trial system with socialist characteristics in China."

Last year's reform focused on the application of a simplified litigation procedure so as to improve efficiency, research in juvenile courts and classified personnel management in courts so that veteran clerks, who received only limited law training, can no longer be automatically promoted to judges simply after working for a certain number of years.

"Courts are doing better in terms of efficiency and fairness," said Liu Weidong, an NPC deputy from Central China's Hubei Province. Liu's enterprise, the Dongfeng-Citroen Automobile Co. Ltd, has been involved in economic cases.

Noting the progress, Lin Yueqin, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said there still remains large room for improvement.

On Lin's list were issues such as the difficulties in verdict-enforcement and the provision of legal aid for the poor.

But for Liu, bringing up more competent judges is the most imminent task courts should work on.

Supreme People's Court statistics indicate that some 47 per cent of its judges have the minimum of post-graduate degree, but the percentage drops significantly in courts in China's vast hinterland.

"Courts should commit themselves more to clean up their judges," said Liu. "This is the most important thing at hand."

Staying the course on the goal of efficiency and fairness, courts in China have gone one step further since last year to make court trials an accessible alternative for ordinary people, including the poor, in settling disputes.

According to Xiao, courts nation-wide reduced, delayed and exempted litigation fees in 228,000 cases, amounting to 1.057 billion yuan (US$127.34 million).

Particular attention has been given to farmers-turned-workers, who recouped 3.7 billion yuan (US$445,000 million) in nearly 140,000 cases.

"There is a stronger sense to pay attention to the legitimate rights of the parties concerned," said Nie Xiangting, a member of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

The Supreme People's Court concluded a total of 300 cases concerning the retrial of crimes and review of cases in which death penalties had been passed by lower courts, up 16.28 per cent from the previous year.

Of these, the supreme court upheld the original verdicts in 182 cases, passed down different verdicts in 94 of them, and remanded the remaining 24 back for retrial.

"The Supreme People's Court has ... strictly followed the statutory criteria in verifying death penalties," said Xiao.

Xiao also said the court will work to sift judicial interpretations that hamper the development of the non-State-owned economy and pledged efforts to punish illegal conduct in the financial sector as well as actions that have infringed upon the legitimate rights of investors, consumers and intellectual property rights holders.

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