Wechat, as most people with an interest in China know, has become the preferred form of social media in China.  The legal community in China has taken to it too.

For the observer, it enables us to learn about new issues (or aspects of issues) that we didn’t know existed, and (depending on the topic), hear viewpoints other than the official one, or at least read hints of dissenting views. Those with the Wechat app on their smartphone can subscribe to these public accounts but it is also possible to find some these articles through an internet search. Note that the “Mr. Yong” about whom I wrote in 2016 lurks on Wechat, so articles published may disappear, although they often reappear elsewhere.

Some are official accounts of government entities, including the courts and others are public accounts (公众账号) established by companies, law firms, universities, societies, other organizations, or individuals. In November, 2018 the Cyberspace Administration of China said that tightened management of internet content producers would be a “new norm,: and Tencent reduced the number of permitted corporate public accounts from five to two and individual accounts from two to one.  More information on this development elsewhere.

Below is the first part of a guide to some useful law-related Wechat public accounts focusing on accounts related to the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) Please contact me through the comment function or email with additional suggestions.

The official Party and government accounts enable the user to keep current on the issues and latest Party and government position in that area of law–new policy, new legislation, and new reforms, or the official response to a current hot topic.  The Central Political-Legal Commission has one, the Central Supervision Commission, as do both the SPC and Supreme People’s Procuratorate, as well as their local counterparts. Academic journals have a different audience that requires more nuance.

As I’ve written before, Party/government authorities use Wechat public accounts to reach out to a public that is moving away from traditional media to smartphones. Party/government policy is encouraging courts to do so.  There is some but not complete overlap between articles that appear on an institution’s website and Wechat account. There is complete overlap when more political matters are involved, such as the latest important speech of a leader. Even some articles published in institutional public accounts may have a “netizen” tone and use netizen slang and images.

Institution	Account name
National Supervision Commission	中央纪委监委网站
Central Political-Legal Commission	中央政法长安剑 （recently renamed, read here

Official accounts linked to the SPC

linked to SPC and its affiliated institutions
Institution	Account name	Content
Supreme People’s Court	最高人民法院	Official view of SPC; also republishes Xinhua articles
People’s Court Daily	人民法院报	Official view of SPC; also republishes Xinhua articles
Institute for Applied Jurisprudence   (since July, 2018, under the new institute director, the account has published  fewer articles than previously)	中国应用法学研究所	Had previously carried accounts of conferences and academic talks, translations of foreign materials; other articles
China Applied Jurisprudence (academic journal)(from Sept., 2018)	中国应用法学	Publishes excerpts from journal articles (recent article included: article on people’s assessors pilot project; also republishes other articles of interest to editor; translations of foreign materials, including an excerpt from “Building a Diverse Bench” (NYU Brennan Center publication)
Journal of Law Application (academic journal affiliated with National Judges College	法律适用	Publishes excerpts from journal articles, some by judges, others by academics
Alternative Dispute Resolution Reform in China	多元化纠纷解决机制	Articles on alternative dispute resolution in China and foreign experience
Database Faxin (affiliated with the People’s Court Press)	法信	Case analysis, analysis of cases on specific issues
China Trial (journal)	中国审判	Excerpts from articles in the journal
People’s Judicature	人民司法	Excerpts from articles in the journal
Case Research Institute of National Judges College	司法案例研究院	Case analysis, excerpts from its academic journal (Journal of Law Application (Cases))

SPC Information Center	智慧法院进行时	Reports on informatization of courts
Administrative enforcement and administrative trial	行政执法与行政审判	Articles related to administrative litigation & enforcement
National Judges College	国家法官学院	Official account; articles reporting on the National Judges College &    its local branches
People’s Assessors	人民陪审	Articles related to the people’s assessor system & its reforms

 

Several SPC judges and SPC officials have Wechat public accounts.  They have obtained approval to have them.   Among them are:

Individual affiliated with SPC	Account name	Content
He Fan (何帆), head of the planning department of the SPC’s Judicial Reform Office	法影斑斓	Judicial reform
Yu Tongzhi (于同志), judge of SPC #2 Criminal Division, editor of 刑事审判参考	说刑品案	Excerpts from the journal, articles on criminal law and criminal procedure issues (some republished), including original articles by Judge Yu himself, generally on broader criminal law issues.
Wang Dongmin (王东敏), judge of the SPC #2 Civil Division	法律之树	Issues of civil and civil procedure law

As a general (but not directed comment), if judges on the SPC express views on issues that may come before them, it would appear to raise issues similar to those that arise in the rest of the world–the propriety of extrajudicial writing–a sample of writings on this issue from other jurisdictions found here. Persons who can provide relevant information concerning relevant SPC ethics provisions, and restrictions in civil law rather than common law jurisdictions, please contact me.