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Communist Party and the Courts, Court Operations, Greater Bay Area, international commercial court, Maritime courts, NPC

Supreme People’s Court’s Specialized Report on Foreign-Related Adjudication Work

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By Susan Finder with initial research assistance by Zhu Xinyue

President Zhou Qiang delivering the report

The Supreme People’s Court’s (SPC) October 2022 specialized report on foreign-related adjudication work (最高人民法院关于人民法院涉外审判工作情况的报告)  provides an overview of the SPC’s and the lower courts’ work related to foreign-related matters over the past 10 years. This blogpost uses the term “adjudication work” to encompass the multiple functions of the SPC (see my U.S.-Asia Law Institute article for a refresher) as well as the lower courts. (My previous blogpost gives a detailed explanation of the significance of specialized reports of the SPC and other institutions to the NPC Standing Committee). The report is intended to showcase the SPC’s work in supporting Xi Jinping era fundamental changes in foreign policy, or as the concluding section words it,  “vigorously serving the greater situation of the Party and State’s external policy work” (积极服务党和国家对外工作大局).  An analysis of the content of this specialized report provides insights into the role of the SPC and its relationships with other Central institutions as well as the current and evolving concept of “foreign-related rule of law” (涉外法治). Concerning the link between “foreign-related rule of law” and the foreign-related adjudication work of the people’s courts,  as President Zhou Qiang said: “the foreign-related adjudication work of the people’s courts is an important part of foreign-related rule of law work (人民法院涉外审判工作是涉外法治工作的重要组成部分).”  

I surmise that the NPC Standing Committee requested the SPC submit a specialized report on the SPC’s foreign-related work because the political leadership is prioritizing developing China’s foreign-related body of law and takes the view that SPC expertise is needed to that end.  As in any legal system, issues that come before the Chinese courts highlight the gaps in current legislation (broadly defined).  

1. Overview of the Report

The report covers all areas of SPC work–criminal, civil and commercial, maritime, intellectual property, administrative, and other areas, as well as the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, and other forms of international judicial assistance.  Because cases involving Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are considered by reference to the principles for foreign-related cases, the report provides highlights of those developments as well. 

Following some background material, this blogpost follows the structure of the report and therefore the blogpost is much longer than usual.  A more comprehensive analysis of many aspects is found in my “never-ending article,” currently on its meandering way to publication.

2. Drafting of the Specialized Report

Because most of the cases involving foreign-related matters tend to be in the commercial area generally (incorporating maritime,  recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards), it is likely that the #4 Civil Division took the lead in drafting the report, worked closely with the International Cooperation Bureau,  and involved other divisions and offices of the SPC as needed, including those working on criminal law issues.  Although this report appears to be just another anodyne official report, what underlies it is likely to be hundreds of hours of drafting, soliciting data and comments from related offices, including the Research Office (with a department in charge of Hong Kong and Macau issues), comments from the vice president in charge of the #4 Division (it now appears to be Justice Tao Kaiyuan),  President Zhou Qiang’s office, and the NPC Standing Committee itself. It is unclear whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Comments also provided input.  It incorporated the SPC’s response to a research report on foreign-related adjudication work prepared by the NPC Standing Committee’s Supervisory and Judicial Affairs Committee (mentioned in the previous blogpost).

3. Summary of the Report

The report highlights the SPC’s work in foreign-related cases in support of related policies. The structure of the report is the usual one for such reports–a long list of accomplishments,  followed by a summary of outstanding challenges and suggestions to the NPC Standing Committee for future work.  It reveals some previously unknown developments and clearly sets out the official conceptual structure underpinning the SPC’s foreign-related adjudication work and therefore China’s “foreign-related rule of law.”   The report takes an inclusive view of accomplishments: judicial interpretations, policy documents, typical and guiding cases, as well as correctly deciding important cases.  This blogpost decodes the details in the report, with brief comments and links to some of my earlier blogposts.

a.  Selected Statistics

 The report provides selected statistics. As I have said when I have spoken on the Belt & Road and the SPC, the number of foreign-related cases heard in the Chinese courts has increased substantially over the past ten years, but even now they constitute a tiny percentage of cases heard in the Chinese courts.  The report reveals some of the challenges, as seen officially.

From 2013 to June 2022, Chinese courts heard a total of 384,000 foreign-related (including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan-related) cases. These numbers are tiny compared to the large number of cases accepted by the Chinese courts annually. For example, in 2021, that number reached over 33 million cases. The number of first-instance foreign-related civil and commercial cases nationwide increased from 14,800 in 2013 to 27,300 in 2021.  The SPC has not released more detailed statistics about the types of civil and commercial cases or foreign-related cases in other areas of law, such as criminal cases.  

b.  Protecting China’s National Security and Sovereignty


As is usual with SPC official reports and documents, matters relating to national security and sovereignty take a prominent place.  The SPC reiterates that its foreign-related adjudication work serves the domestic and external greater situations.  This section highlights two areas of service in protection of national security and sovereignty:

  • striking at crime: and

The crimes mentioned are harmonized with the priorities seen in other official reports and documents, so that national security, particularly political security is listed first.  The crimes are similar to those listed in the 2020 Guiding Opinions on Services and Safeguards of the People’s Courts on Further Expanding Opening-Up to the World (Open Policy Guiding Opinion 最高人民法院关于人民法院服务保障进一步扩大对外开放的指导意见).  Accomplishments listed include the 2017 Provisions on Several Questions Concerning the Application of the Procedure of Confiscating Illegal Gains in Cases Where the Criminal Suspects or Defendants Absconded or Died and the 2021 comprehensive judicial interpretation of the Criminal Procedure Law (my book chapter concerns its drafting), which contains basic principles relating to foreign-related cases.  

  • protecting China’s investments abroad. Cases so classified include infrastructure-related cases, trade cases, and shipping cases. The principal accomplishment is issuing a judicial interpretation on the hearing of independent letter of guarantee (demand guarantee) disputes and unifying the rules governing such disputes. These developments, which have come through several SPC cases (discussed here) and the end 2021 Conference Summary, have been flagged on this blog. A long-pending China International Commercial Court (CICC) case may provide additional guidance. 

c. Creating a Legalized International Business Environment

This section is relatively long and highlights much of the SPC’s foreign-related adjudication work in the past 10 years. The focus is on international commercial dispute resolution rather than intellectual property disputes. 
i. Foreign investment: The courts have supported the revised Foreign Investment Law and Implementing Regulations with two interpretations (including one on the application of the Foreign Investment Law, mentioned here), as well as a policy of centralizing the hearing of such cases, seeking to ensure greater competency.
ii. Pilot free trade zones and ports: The courts have supported these policies through several services and safeguards opinions (one general one, discussed in my book chapter, as well as ones on Lingang, Hainan, and new zones in Beijing). The SPC also issued related typical cases and encouraged local courts to establish additional measures to support national free trade zone policy.
iii. The courts have supported national policies supporting a competitive market order, and to that end have issued regulations on bankruptcy, normative documents on improving the business environment (including services and safeguards opinions and a conference summary), and established financial courts (see Mark Jia’s related article).
iv. Supported national policy concerning economic development and COVID-19 pandemic control (I have a related article that will be published in Italian).  The SPC promulgated four guiding opinions (policy documents) on the trial of civil cases related to the Covid-19 pandemic, one of which focused on foreign-related commercial and maritime cases.  This document was included in UNCITRAL’s CLOUT database.

v.  Respecting international conventions and international practices (customs or usage, by which is meant trade/commercial practices or usages).  As mentioned here, the SPC is drafting a judicial interpretation on the application of international conventions and treaties and international practices and has issued related typical cases.
vi. Application of (foreign (non-mainland) governing law.  Since 2013, the courts have applied foreign law in 542 cases. My draft article discusses related issues briefly.
vii. Cross-border recognition and enforcement of judgments: Since 2013, the courts nationwide have considered 7,313 cases of applications for recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial judgments from foreign courts.  My draft article discusses the evolution of this policy. The report mentions the enforcement of Chinese judgments abroad.

d. Serving national maritime policy


The report underlines that the SPC’s maritime adjudication work directly serves foreign trade shipping and marine development to maintain national [judicial] sovereignty and related national interests. The report mentions that the SPC issued judicial interpretations on maritime litigation jurisdiction, and issued judicial interpretations for hearing cases of compensation for damage to marine natural resources and ecological environment. The SPC and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued regulations on handling public interest litigation cases on marine natural resources and ecological environment, and released related typical cases.
The report mentions China’s work on becoming an international maritime justice center  (See my article in the Diplomat).   Related accomplishments include the SPC expanding the network of maritime courts and their dispatched tribunals and the report highlights that more parties without a jurisdictional link with China have chosen the jurisdiction of the Chinese maritime courts (for a different view from the official one, see Professor Vivienne Bath’s research on parallel litigation involving the Chinese maritime courts). 

e. Improving international commercial dispute resolution mechanisms to serve high-quality development of the BRI


According to the report, the SPC is implementing the deployment of the political leadership in this area.  Those include:

the CICC and related developments, including: the CICC’s bilingual website, the  CICC’s expert committee; two BRI Services and Safeguards Opinions, and typical BRI cases, as well as establishing local international commercial courts. (This blog has discussed these developments in some detail, with more contained in my draft article).

f. Establishing diversified dispute resolution of international commercial disputes 

i. The SPC reports that it established a “one-stop” diversified international commercial dispute resolution mechanism, which integrates litigation, arbitration, and mediation.  The report mentions the accomplishments of several local courts and the incorporation of arbitration and mediation institutions into the SPC’s (CICC’s (Chinese version)) one-stop platform.  
ii. Arbitration: The SPC issued judicial interpretations on judicial review of arbitration cases and enforcement of arbitral awards, and introduced a mechanism and reporting system for judicial review of arbitration cases; since 2013, Chinese courts have heard over 110,000 judicial review cases (presumably the vast majority domestic). 
iii. Mediation: The report describes local developments and accomplishments related to the mediation platform of the people’s courts (see the related white paper). 

g. Serving national Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan policy

On the details of SPC and Greater Bay Area policy, please see my earlier blogpost and presentation at a November, 2022 conference held at the Law Faculty of the University of Hong Kong.

This blogpost summarized earlier developments related to Taiwan. The  SPC issued judicial interpretations on the recognition and enforcement of Taiwan civil judgments and arbitration awards.
The SPC mentioned that the courts have supported national policy on integrating Hong Kong and Macao into Greater Bay Area policy by supporting [Ministry of Justice led policy] to permit lawyers from Hong Kong and Macao to practice in the Greater Bay Area (note, such lawyers must be Chinese citizens). The courts are also supporting the initiatives related to integrating Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan legal professionals (again, foreign professionals registered in these jurisdictions are not included).

f. Improving the quality and credibility of  China’s foreign-related adjudication


i. Jurisdiction: the report mentions a notice on jurisdiction on foreign-related cases (flagged in this blogpost) and centralized jurisdiction.
ii. Service of process: The SPC amended the judicial interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law to enable more flexible service of process abroad and established a platform with the Ministry of Justice (discussed in this blogpost) to enable more efficient handling of service of process requests from abroad. (There is no mention of greater flexibility in foreign service of process into mainland China.)
iii. Determination of foreign law: the SPC established a unified platform for the determination of foreign law (accessible through the CICC website, see the links above), which links to SPC-authorized institutions providing such services.  My draft article provides additional details. 

iv. Improving cross-border litigation services.  This integrates with the SPC’s smart courts policy.  One of the major accomplishments mentioned in the SPC’s judicial interpretation on cross-border online litigation.  
iv. Training foreign-related adjudication talents (涉外审判人才.  See my earlier blogpost.

g.  Promoting the development of the domestic and foreign-related legal systems

Matters so classified include: vigorously supporting the development of foreign-related legislation (mentioned in this blogpost); application of foreign-related law; and undertaking related research.  The foreign-related legislation that the report mentions (Civil Procedure Law and several maritime-related laws), is actually only one small part of what the SPC has done.  The application of foreign-related legislation gives the SPC an opportunity to reiterate its accomplishments in issuing judicial interpretations; policy documents;  conference summaries; and typical cases.  The SPC also mentions its BRI research center and establishing research centers at 15 universities and research institutions.

h. International judicial exchanges to promote the establishment of a community with a shared future of mankind

The SPC includes in this category the following: judicial exchanges in the form of memoranda of understanding and large-scale conferences; international judicial assistance in both civil and criminal matters; participation in the formulation of international rules (negotiating international conventions and bilateral treaties, as mentioned here, as well as providing support to China’s initiatives in various matters, including railway bills of lading (see my student Zhang Huiyu’s article); and “telling China’s rule of law story well.”  The latter category includes certain conferences and meetings with foreign judiciaries.   I have either been a participant or an observer in some of those “telling China’s rule of law story well” events, such as the CICC international conferences and the 2019 third meeting of the UK-China Joint Judicial Expert Working Group on Commercial Dispute Resolution.  

4. Challenges in foreign-related work

The report listed the following challenges:
a. Limited ability of some courts to engage in foreign-related adjudication work, as evidenced by the lack of experience of some courts in foreign-related work.  When I spoke at a Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre event in October, 2022, my co-panelist Arthur Dong illustrated that with his accounts of how several local courts handled applications for interim measures.
b. Ongoing difficult issues: difficulties in service of process, extraterritorial investigation and evidence collection; determining foreign (non-mainland Chinese) law;  shortening the trial period for hearing foreign-related cases (also note that at least one CICC case has been outstanding for over two years).
c. The “one-stop” diversified international commercial dispute resolution mechanism needs improving and China needs to accelerate the drafting of a commercial mediation law.  The need for a commercial mediation law has been discussed within central institutions since at least 2019 (as I have observed). So it seems that the SPC is in line with the view of the Ministry of Commerce that such a law is needed to promote more professional mediation.
d. A significant shortage in the number of judicial personnel with foreign-related expertise (discussed here).

5. Future developments

The report emphasized adhering to the leadership of the Party to ensure foreign-related adjudication is politically correct and in line with the deployment of the political leadership.
The practical measures (directed towards the NPC Standing Committee) included:

  •  Accelerating the process of amending the foreign-related part of the Civil Procedure Law (this has been accomplished). Incorporating the amendment of the Special Maritime Procedure Law into the [NPC’s] legislative plan;  amend the NPC Standing Committee decision establishing the maritime courts, to give maritime courts in coastal cities jurisdiction over certain criminal cases (an issue under discussion since at least 2014);
  • improving certain matters related to the CICC to resolve certain “bottleneck” issues (unspecified). 
  • At an appropriate time, drafting a commercial mediation law to provide a sufficient legal basis for China’s competitive position in international commercial dispute resolution;
  • Delegating authority to Guangdong and other courts that hear a large number of cases involving Hong Kong and Macau cases to simplify civil litigation procedures, such as proof concerning the identity of the party and authorization of its representative. (These issues are linked to the fact that China has not yet signed the Hague “Apostille Convention” (see my earlier blogpost) and has not yet created an analogous procedure for Hong Kong and Macau);
  • Improving training of foreign-related legal personnel through implementing an exchange policy with international institutions. As I have observed, much of the discussion of training foreign-related legal personnel has involved training in China, with minimal foreign involvement.  

Concluding comment

As this report has illustrated, the SPC (and the court system) are taking an active part in the evolving project of creating a foreign-related legal system that better reflects both the demands of the political leadership and the practical needs of the users of the Chinese legal system.  It should be clear from this analysis that China’s foreign-related rule of law is a work in progress involving a multitude of issues, and that the SPC has a multifaceted and crucial role in its creation.

bankruptcy law, foreign-related cases, Maritime courts

Coming Attractions on the Supreme People’s Court’s Foreign-related Commercial & Maritime Law Agenda

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Justice Tao Kaiyuan

Because the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has not released its judicial interpretation agenda for 2021 (as previously mentioned), the observer seeking to determine what is on that drafting priority list and must rely on occasional reports in the professional and academic press. In August, SPC Vice President Tao Kaiyuan, (link to her speech at the Brookings Institution in 2015) who appears to have assumed responsibility for the #4 Civil Division and foreign-related commercial and maritime matters, published a short article in one of the SPC’s media outlets. For those able to read the language of SPC official documents, her article provided insights into future developments, ongoing issues, expanding the Chinese courts’ circle of friends, and the qualities that Chinese judges must possess.

Future Developments

Justice Tao released information on the following developments:

  1. The SPC will issue a Conference Summary on the 2021 National Symposium on Foreign-Related Commercial and Maritime Trial Work (2021年全国涉外商事海事审判工作座谈会会议纪要) to resolve difficult issues in practice and unify judgment standards.  She did not further detail the difficult issues that need unifying in the Conference Summary. As mentioned here, although conference summaries are not judicial interpretations and cannot be cited in a court judgment document as the basis of a judgment, it is generally recognized that provide important guidance to the work of the courts and judges will decide cases according to its provisions.  Generally, they are issued to address issues regarding which the lower courts have inconsistent views, but time or the fluidity of the situation does not permit a judicial interpretation to be issued.
  2. The SPC is in the process of researching and drafting a judicial interpretation on the application of international treaties and international practices (研究制定涉外民商事案件适用国际条约和国际惯例). This topic has been mentioned in previous Belt & Road- related opinions. I surmise that it was finally realized that this topic needed to be addressed if the Chinese courts are to be increasingly engaged with the outside world, as is signaled by the Party’s Five-Year Plan for Constructing the Rule of Law (2020-2025);
  3. The SPC is drafting a judicial interpretation on the ascertainment (determination) of foreign (extraterritorial) law in foreign-related civil and commercial cases. This, too, is a long outstanding issue, mentioned in earlier blogposts including one from 2014;
  4. SPC and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate are researching and drafting a judicial interpretation on compensation for damages to marine natural resources and the environment. I surmise the interpretation will address cases with both criminal and civil aspects, relating to compensation for harm to the environment.
  5. Justice Tao mentions that SPC judges will continue to participate in the UNCITRAL  Working Group VI draft convention on the judicial sale of ships, the Hague Conference on Private International Law Jurisdiction Project, and the other drafting international rules.  As I have previously mentioned, while sometimes the SPC sends one of its judges to participate in the Chinese delegation negotiating an international convention, in other projects other central institutions take the lead in negotiation and consult with the SPC on issues relating to the courts.  She did not mention the hard work needed to harmonize Chinese legislation with international conventions.

Ongoing Issues

Justice Tao also mentioned that the SPC will continue to research parallel proceedings, cross-border bankruptcy, cross-border data transfer, sovereign immunity, and other such issues.  I surmise that cross-border bankruptcy is high on the research priority list, as the National People’s Congress Standing Committee has started work on amending the Bankruptcy Law, but cross-border data transfer is an important one as well. Parallel proceedings, in my view, are likely to become a greater, rather than a lesser point of tension between China and certain other jurisdictions.

Expanding the SPC’s Circle of Friends

Justice Tao has a paragraph on China deepening international judicial cooperation and continuing to expand the Chinese judiciary’s “circle of friends”(朋友圈). She mentions actively creating opportunities for Chinese judges to enter the international judicial stage, participate in important international conferences and international forums, learn about the experience of foreign counterparts in the rule of law, strengthen the external communication of China’s judicial system, judicial culture, and judicial reform.

As seen from my perspective, many opportunities for Chinese judges to speak exist, but overly complicated bureaucratic procedures with which they must comply set formidable obstacles preventing them from directly communicating with the outside world. I’ll eventually have more to say on the SPC and its communication with the outside world, but others could use the SPC’s English language website  (about which I previously commented) as one of many measures of the quality of its foreign discourse.  I have heard a number of SPC judges speak to foreign audiences.  Some, particularly those who have spoken at Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre or other arbitration-related events, have a keen sense of their foreign audience, but others package five or ten minutes of insightful remarks, generally at the end, preceded by twenty minutes if not more of press release type information, by which time they have lost the audience.  Justice Tao does not mention interactions going in the other direction, that is, expanding their circle of friends by welcoming foreigners to the Chinese courts as interns or affiliated scholars. The Chinese courts continue to benefit from the Federal Judicial Center’s hospitality to (the late) Judge Zou Bihua and other Chinese judges.  

Qualities of Foreign-Related Judges

In the concluding section, Justice Tao addresses the need for training (about which I have written recently) and the qualities required of  Chinese judges focusing on foreign-related commercial and maritime matters.  Those qualities mirror current policy on judicial personnel, as previously discussed on this blog–they must be both politically and professionally competent and ethical.

Commercial law, Court Operations, Court Reform, intellectual property, judges, judicial committees, judicial documents, Maritime courts

New Supreme People’s Court guidance on how Chinese judges consider cases

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photo of professional judges’ meeting in a Qingdao area court

Among the many reforms set out in mentioned in the February, 2019  Supreme People’s Court ‘s (SPC’s) fifth judicial reform plan outline is improving the mechanism of the Professional Judges Meeting, about which I have previously written.   Earlier this month (January, 2021), the SPC issued guidance on professional/specialized judges meetings (I have also translated it previously as specialized judges meetings) , entitled Guiding Opinion on Improving the Work System of Professional Judges Meetings (Professional Judges Meetings Guiding Opinion or Guiding Opinion),  (关于完善人民法院专业法官会议工作机制的指导意见), superseding 2018 guidance on the same topic. The earlier guidance had the title of Guiding Opinions on Improving the Working Mechanism for Presiding Judges’ Meetings of People’s Court (For Trial Implementation).  The meetings are intended to give single judges or a collegial panel considering a case additional thoughts from colleagues, when a case is “complicated,” “difficult,”, or the collegial panel cannot agree among themselves.  

This blogpost will provide some background to the Guiding Opinion, a summary of the Guiding Opinions, a summary of a non-scientific survey of judges, and some initial thoughts. 

Background to the Guiding Opinion

The Guiding Opinion is a type of soft law that enables the SPC to say that it has achieved on of the targets set out in the current judicial reform plan. According to a recent article by the drafters, they researched and consulted widely among courts, but that does not mean that a survey went out to all judges.  It is further evidence that the SPC is operating as Justice He Xiaorong stated five years ago–” after the circuit courts  are established, the center of the work of SPC headquarters will shift to supervision and guidance…” 

Judicial reform and the Guiding Opinion

The Professional Judges Meeting Guiding Opinion is linked to #26 of the current judicial reform plan outline, discussed in part in this June, 2019 blogpost.  I have bold-italicked the relevant phrases:

#26 Improve mechanisms for the uniform application of law. Strengthen and regulate work on judicial interpretations, complete mechanisms for researching, initiating, drafting, debating, reviewing, publishing, cleaning up, and canceling judicial interpretations, to improve centralized management and report review mechanisms. Improve the guiding cases system, complete mechanisms for reporting, selecting, publishing, assessing, and applying cases. Establish mechanisms for high people’s courts filing for the record trial guidance documents and reference cases. Complete mechanisms for connecting the work of case discussion by presiding judges and collegial panel deliberations, the compensation commission, and the judicial committee. Improve working mechanisms for mandatory searches and reporting of analogous cases and new types of case. (完善统一法律适用机制。 加强和规范司法解释工作，健全司法解释的调研、立项、起草、论证、审核、发布、清理和废止机制，完善归口管理和报备审查机制。完善指导性案例制度，健全案例报送、筛选、发布、评估和应用机制。建立高级人民法院审判指导文件和参考性案例的备案机制。健全主审法官会议与合议庭评议、赔偿委员会、审判委员会讨论案件的工作衔接机制。完善类案和新类型案件强制检索报告工作机制)

Uniform Application of Law

As for why the uniform application of law is an issue, a quick explanation is the drafting of Chinese legislation often leaves important issues unresolved and  leaves broad discretion to those authorities issuing more specific rules.  To the casual observer, it appear that the Chinese legislature (NPC) “outsources” to the SPC (and Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) for some issues) the hard job of drafting more detailed provisions. (see Chinalawtranslate.com for many examples and NPC_observer.com for insights about the legislative drafting process).  Although the Communist Party’s plan for building rule of law in China calls for legislatures to be more active in legislating (see NPC Observer’s comments), in my view the SPC (and SPP) will continue to issue judicial interpretations, as the NPC and its standing committee are unlikely to be able to supply the detailed rules needed by the judiciary, procuratorate and legal community.  Although the general impression both inside and outside of China is that the SPC often “legislates,” exceeding its authority as a court, as I have mentioned several times in recent blogposts, the SPC issues judicial interpretations after close coordination and harmonization with the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission.

Professional Judges Meeting Guiding Opinion

The Guiding Opinion is linked to the judicial responsibility system, about which my forthcoming book chapter will have more discussion.  Professor He Xin addresses that system, among other topics in his recently published academic article.

The Guiding Opinion authorizes certain senior members of a court (court president, vice president, head of division, as part of their supervisory authority (under the Organic Law of the People’s Courts) to chair meetings of judges (who exactly will attend depends on the court- to discuss certain types of cases and provide advice to the single judge or three judge panel hearing a case. (In my informal inquiries, I have found that interns are sometimes permitted to attend, but sometimes not). The types of cases mentioned in Article 4 of the guiding opinions and listed below are not complete, but raise both legal and politically sensitive issues:

  • ones in which the panel cannot come to a consensus,
  • a senior judge believes approaches need to be harmonized;
  • involving a mass (group) dispute which could influence social stability;
  • difficult or complicated cases that have a major impact on society;
  • may involving a conflict with a judgment in a similar case decided by the same court or its superior;
  • certain entities or individuals have made a claim that the judges have violated hearing procedure. 

Before the discussion, the judge or judges involved in the case are required to prepare a report with relevant materials, possibly including a search for similar cases, which may or may not be the same as the trial report described in my July, 2020 blogpost, 

The guiding opinions sets out guidance on how the meeting is to be run and the order in which persons speak.

Depending on the type of case involved, a case may be further referred to the judicial committee or the matter may be resolved by the meeting providing their views to the collegial panel. 

Article 15 of the guiding opinions provides that participating in these meetings is part of a judge’s workload. The guiding opinions provide that a judge’s expression of views at these meetings should be an important part of his or her performance appraisal, evaluation, and provision, and the materials can be edited into meeting summaries, typical cases, and other forms of guidance materials,   which can be used for additional points in performance evaluation.  One of the operational divisions of the SPC and at least one circuit court has published edited collections of their professional judges meetings, with identifying information about the parties removed.

Comments

From my non-scientific survey of judges at different levels of court and in different areas of law, my provisional conclusion is as follows. Judges hearing civil or commercial cases seem to hold these meetings more often, particularly at a higher level of court.  Criminal division judges seem to hold such meetings less often (at least based on my small sample), but the meetings are considered to be useful. 

 Frequency seems to depend on the court and the division, with one judge mentioning weekly meetings, while others mentioned that they were held occasionally. Most judges that I surveyed considered the meetings useful, because they provided collective wisdom and enabled judges to consider the cases better. One judge noted that it may also result in otherwise unknown relevant facts coming to light. 

I would also add my perception that it also gives the judges dealing with a “difficult or complicated case” (substantively or politically) in a particular case the reassurance that their colleagues support their approach, even if the judges involved remain responsible under the responsibility system. This is important when judges are faced with deciding cases in a dynamic area of law with few detailed rules to guide them, or where the policy has changed significantly within a brief time. My perception is that this mechanism provides a more collegial environment and better results that the old system of having heads of divisions signing off on judgments. I would welcome comments from those who have been there.

The Guiding Opinions provide yet another illustration of how Chinese courts operate as a cross between a bureaucracy and a court, from the rationale for holding the meeting to the use of meeting participation as an important part of performance evaluation. 

Although the slogan (of several years ago) is that judges should be treated more like judges,  the Guiding Opinion appears to treat lower court judges analogous to secondary or university students, to be given grades for their class participation.  

What are the implications of this mechanism?

Litigants and their offshore counsel (Chinese counsel would know this) need to know that the result in their case in a Chinese court may be influenced by judges who are not in the courtroom when their counsel advocates orally. Written advocacy should still have an impact on professional judge committee discussions.  It appears that counsel is not informed that the case has been referred to a professional judges committee for discussion and it is not possible for counsel to know who is part of the committee and apply for judges to be recused in case of a concern that there has been a conflict of interest. 

Would it result in more commercial parties deciding that arbitration is a better option, as they have better control over dispute resolution in their particular case?  My perception is that the decision concerning appropriate dispute resolution is based on other factors, and the existence of the professional judges meeting as a mechanism to provide views to judges hearing a case has little impact on that decision.  I welcome comments on that question.

__________________________________________

Many thanks to those who participated in the survey and also to those who commented on an earlier draft of this blogpost.  

Commercial law, foreign-related cases, Maritime courts, One belt one road

English language websites of Chinese courts

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The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and other Chinese courts have established or upgraded their English language websites to promote better the image of the Chinese courts to the outside world.  These websites are linked to policy goals set by the 4th Plenum, 4th Five Year Court Reform Plan, and other related documents. That can be seen from an announcement on the English language version of the Shanghai Maritime Court’s website:

Shanghai Maritime Court established a judicial translator team, aiming at having a bigger say in global judicial disputes and fostering judicial talents with a global vision.

“Establishing a professional translator team for maritime judiciary centers is a goal for building a global maritime judicial center,” said Zhao Hong, president of the Shanghai Maritime Court.

“It is aiming to serve a maritime powerhouse and laying a solid foundation for China’s Belt and Road initiative,” Zhao said.

A quick rating of the soft power of these English language websites follows below.

SPC English website

  1. SPC’s English website: http://www.english.court.gov.cn

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The SPC English website, while an improvement over the previous version, could be substantially improved.

Too much of the information is out of date, including much of the information on the landing page of the website. The “About” section, which could be useful to foreign courts, diplomats, journalists, researchers, students, etc. has an outdated description of the SPC leadership.  In the section on Resources, the SPC white papers are published as separate pages, rather than as one downloadable PDF (as some of the Chinese maritime courts have done). The scheduled hearings section is generally out of date and also provides no information as to how an interested person would attend a hearing. The link to issues of the SPC Gazette only contains the first two pages, rather than the full issue itself.  Moreover, the landing page lacks links to other English language court websites.

National Maritime Court site

China Maritime Trial: http://enccmt.court.gov.cn/chinamaritimetrial/index.html, the English language version of the national maritime court website (partial screenshot below), apparent partner to the Foreign Related Commercial website (similar look and feel) seems to be in beta mode.Screen Shot 2017-05-08 at 2.03.12 PM

Again, as with the national court website, the news on most of the landing page appears to be outdated.  The white paper page does not enable the user to download a PDF version of the report providing an overview of the first 30 years of the maritime courts.  Under the resources tab, under law & regs, are links to translations of SPC judicial interpretations relating to the maritime courts, but it is not apparent to anyone looking at the landing page. These translations are potentially a useful resource to all sorts of foreign readers. Under the resources tab, the cases menu is empty. The judgement tab links to translations of some judgments and rulings by the SPC and maritime courts, but without any headings or indications on the front page of the website.  These translations, too, are potentially a useful resource to foreign users. It does have links to the other maritime courts (some of which have English websites, but some of the links are out of date.

National Foreign-Related Commercial Cases Website

China Foreign Related Commercial Trial: http://enccmt.court.gov.cn/ChinaForeignRelatedCommercialTrial/index.html , the English language version of the national foreign-related commercial cases court website (partial screenshot below),apparent partner to the Maritime Courts website (similar look and feel) seems to be in beta mode.china foreign related trial

Again, as with the national court website, the news on most of the landing page appears to be outdated. Under the About tab is a list of courts that can accept foreign-related cases, but information about the jurisdiction of each court is missing. Under the Media Center, most of the information under Updates is irrelevant to the courts, the information under International Exchanges is missing, but the Specials has a translation of the SPC’s Belt & Road policy document (although followed by descriptions of the SPC’s cooperation with several Shanghai-area law schools).  There is no content under the Resources tab or the Judgement tab.  Translations of judicial interpretations related to foreign-related civil and commercial issues and a clearer explanation of how a foreign-related case progresses in China would be useful for the casual foreign user, including those from the Belt & Road countries.

Local court websites

Relatively few Chinese courts seem to have English language websites, but the Shanghai high court (http://www.hshfy.sh.cn/shfy/English/index.jsp) has one of them.Screen Shot 2017-05-13 at 3.24.23 PM

The Shanghai Higher People’s Court website is well organized, and relatively timely, although the litigation guide has little information to guide the foreign litigant, and too much of the information, whether cases or news, is badly edited.  The information on jurisdiction is not very helpful for a litigant or counsel, because it does not convey information on the jurisdiction of the Shanghai courts.  It appears that translators lacked understanding of who the potential users of the site were, and had English language challenges, unlike the Shanghai maritime court (see more below).

Local Maritime court websites

Several maritime courts have English language websites, with Guangzhou and Shanghai taking the lead in presenting useful and clear information to the foreign user.  The Shanghai maritime court website (http://shhsfy.gov.cn/hsfyywwx/hsfyywwx/index.html) does a good job of presenting official information clearly and in a timely manner. Screen Shot 2017-05-13 at 2.51.58 PM.pngThe Shanghai maritime court’s bilingual white paper for 2014 and 2015 is downloadable in PDF (under the Annual Report tab), the Court News is relatively timely,  The case digests are useful and calendar lists upcoming court hearings (however without information concerning how an interested person could attend them). Unusually for a Chinese court website, the Judges tab has photos of judges other than the senior leadership.  The Contact Us tab (unusual for a Chinese court) has only telephone numbers for the court and affiliated tribunals, rather than an email (or Wechat account).  Of course the information on the Chinese side of the website is more detailed (under the white paper tab, for example, a detailed analysis of annual judicial statistics can be found), and the laws & regulations tab might usefully set out maritime-related judicial interpretations, but most of the information is well organized and relevant.  Similar comments can be made about the Guangzhou maritime court’s website (http://english.gzhsfy.gov.cn/index.php).

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Comment

It appears that Judge Zhao Hong, president of the Shanghai Maritime Court (and former SPC #4 Civil Division judge) and her Guangzhou counterpart, Judge Ye Liudong, have a greater sense of what the world outside of China is interested to know about the Chinese courts than many other Chinese senior court judges. The team of judges (and other judicial personnel)  under her watchful eye does a good job of keeping the website current and useful.

Most of the court English language websites should be rated “room to improve,”  as they fail to convey useful and timely information to foreign users.Those running the website do not seem to have a sense of what the foreign audience wants to know. That could be solved in a couple of ways: looking at some foreign court websites, consulting with a web-development company focusing on the foreign market, or recruiting some foreign lawyers or law students to be a website focus group.

The websites need to convey to a foreign audience a range of useful information worded in accessible language if they are to accomplish their goal of promoting the image of the Chinese courts.  One useful piece of information that should be on a Chinese court website is a clear illustration of the steps in a civil or commercial case), aimed at individual or small business litigants.  How foreigners can use the Chinese courts to protect their rights, be they related to a contract, property, or employment relationship, is a practical issue both to the hundreds of thousands of foreign residents in China as well as those foreigners with cross-border disputes with a Chinese party.

Commercial law, Communist Party and the Courts, foreign-related cases, Maritime courts

What the Central Economic Work Conference means for the Chinese courts

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©China Daily

The day after the Communist Party Central Committee’s Central Economic Work Conference concluded, the Supreme People’s Court’s (SPC’s) Party Committee held a meeting to study the “spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference.”  According to SPC President Zhou Qiang, the Central Economic Work Conference has the following takeaways for the courts:

First, adhere to strict and impartial justice, and create an open, transparent and predictable rule of law business environment 

Among the points– “We must insist on protecting the lawful rights and interests of Chinese and foreign parties equally according to law and building a more competitive international investment environment.”

Note, of course, that the foreign chambers of commerce in China have other views of the current state of the business environment at the moment, but agree that rule of law, transparency, and predictability are critical for improving China’s economic performance.  The following is from the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China’s  Business Confidence Survey 2016 

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AmCham China: “Respondents now cite inconsistent regulatory interpretation and unclear laws as their No. 1 business challenge.”

Second,  use the rule of law to actively promote the supply side structural reform

Zhou Qiang called on the lower courts to work better on bankruptcy cases, give full play to the role of the information network of bankruptcy and reorganization of enterprises, actively and safely deal with “zombie enterprises”, to optimize the allocation of resources to resolve the excess capacity.

But actually, bankruptcy cases remain fraught.

According to SPC Senior Judge Du Wanhua, charged with making bankruptcy law work better, in China bankruptcy requires a unified coordination mechanism  with government and courts, under Party Committee leadership.

In recent high profile corporate bankruptcies, such as LDK Solar, the local governments say that they cannot afford to rescue the companies, and so the burden must fall on creditors. The LDK case has drawn complaints from bankruptcy practitioners that the local government-led restructuring was designed to force banks to swallow the losses. Another lawyer commented that local governments’ intervention in bankruptcy cases has often disrupted their fairness.

It is likely that we will see more developments in 2017 concerning bankruptcy.

The third is to further increase the protection of property rights

Among the points Zhou Qiang made:

  • We must strengthen the protection of property rights of various organizations and natural persons;
  • We should have the courage to correct a number of mistaken cases concerning infringement of property rights.

These statements relate to three documents issued in late November and early November on protecting property rights, linked to the Central Committee/State Council’s November 4 document on the same topic, following the document issued in late October (and describe in my recent blogpost). They include:

All three relate to (well-known) abuses of China’s justice system, including:

  • turning business disputes to criminal cases (a risk for both Chinese and foreign businesses);
  • courts freezing assets far exceeding the amount in dispute (this is one example);
  • court confiscating the personal property of the entrepreneur and his (her) family, failing to distinguish between corporate and personal property;
  • courts failing to give parties opposing freezing or confiscation order a chance to be heard;
  • courts failing to hear disputes between government and entrepreneurs fairly.

The first document (apparently drafted by the SPC Research Department, because its head explained its implications at the press conference at which the first two documents were released) repeats existing principles that state-owned and private litigants, Chinese and foreign litigants should be treated equally.  It repeats existing principles that public power must not be used to violate private property rights.

The Historical Property Rights Cases Opinion (apparently drafted by the SPC’s Trial Supervision Division, because its head explained its implications at that press conference) calls on provincial high courts to establish work groups to review mistaken cases and to avoid such tragedies in the first place, focusing on implementing the regulations restricting officials from  involving themselves in court cases and the judicial responsibility system.

The third document seeks to impose better controls on the use of enforcement procedures by the lower courts.

Comments

It is hoped that these documents can play some part in improving the quality of justice in China, despite the difficulties posed while the local courts remain under local Party/government control, and may lead to the release of unfairly convicted entrepreneurs and the return of unfairly confiscated property. Perhaps these documents may provide some protection to local judges seeking to push back against local pressure.  On the historical cases, the SPC Supervision Division should consider appealing to current or retired judges who may have been involved in these injustices to come forward (without fear of punishment), as they likely to be able to identify these cases. A defined role for lawyers would also be helpful.

On the equal protection of enterprises, it should be remembered that the SPC itself has issued documents that give special protection to some parties, such as “core military enterprises.”

It appears that these documents respond to the following:

  • years of criticism of  differential legal treatment of and discrimination against private entrepreneurs;
  • academic studies by influential institutions on the criminal law risk faced by private entrepreneurs;
  • Downturn in private investment in the Chinese economy;
  • Lack of interest on the part of private enterprise in private-public partnerships;
  • Increase in investment by private enterprise abroad, most recently illustrated by the Fuyao Glass investment in Ohio;
  • articles such as this one describing Chinese entrepreneurs as either in jail or on the road to jail.

Fourth, proactive service for the construction of “one belt one road” 

This section repeats many of the themes highlighted in the SPC’s earlier pronouncements on One Belt One Road (OBOR or Belt & Road), the maritime courts, and foreign-related commercial developments. The Chinese courts continue to grapple with the increased interaction and conflicts with courts in foreign jurisdictions. The OBOR jurisdictions are handicapped by a dearth of legal professionals with familiarity with the Chinese legal system.

We should expect to see more developments directly or indirectly linked to OBOR, including a more standardized approach to the judicial review of arbitration clauses.

Fifth, strengthen the judicial response to the risks and challenges of the economy

Among the issues that President Zhou Qiang mentioned

  •  Internet finance;
  • Internet fraud;
  • illegal fund-raising and other crimes;
  • real estate disputes;
  • cases involving people’s livelihood, increasing the recourse of migrant workers and other cases of wage arrears.

These are all ongoing, difficult issues for the courts. Legislation does not demarcate clearly the line between legal and illegal forms of financing as discussed here. Migrant workers, particularly in the construction industry, are often not hired under labor contracts but labor service contracts, which reduces their entitlements under the law. As the Chinese economy continues to soften, it is likely that complex real estate disputes (of the type seen in 2015) will burden the lower courts.

We are likely to see further developments in these areas.

President Zhou Qiang told the courts to make good use of judicial “big data” to detect trends and issues so the courts can put forward targeted recommendations for reference of the Party committee and government decision-makers. He has made this point repeatedly recently.

For foreign observers of China, judicial big data is in fact a useful source of indicating trends across the Chinese economy, society, and government.  This blog has flagged some analyses, but there is much more than can and should be done.