Late last year, some followers asked me to describe some of the principal sources for Supreme People’s Court’s (SPC) research. I’m doing this in several posts, as few (particularly outside of China) seem to be aware of the range of publicly available publications of the SPC and its many affiliated entities–see here and here for earlier posts. This post summarizes the journals (actually periodic publications–each has an ISBN number) edited and written (at least in part) by the trial divisions and other offices of the SPC.   As far as I know, they are only in printed form, although sometimes some parts of the content can be found on WeChat. That means that those outside of China are rarely aware of their existence.  I assume that they are available through Taobao or Jingdong.  

The readers of these publications are judges and practitioners. The publications are specialized, in contrast to the Supreme People’s Court Gazette, and each one contains normative provisions and guidance related to the specific area of law.

A quick guide to the content listed: the judicial interpretations are normative, of course, and the “understanding and application” articles provide further explanation and background about judicial interpretations and sometimes policy documents. “Leaders’ speeches” are a statement of policy, substantive & political; relevant policy documents (such as the SPC/National Intellectual Property Administration policy document of February, 2023 contain policy and related political signals; the research & local documents are all related to current issues in the relevant area of law; and the typical cases/outstanding judgments provide guidance to judges & are useful reference materials for lawyers/in-house counsel because the results in the cases reflect the views of the Supreme People’s Court. The publications flag new issues facing the judiciary in the specialized area involved and sometimes include analysis of foreign laws or regulations or an account of a foreign court visit or symposium.  Each journal has a slightly different format.  It may be possible to find electronic compilations of these journals on WeChat.

These journals are mostly published by the People’s Court Press (人民法院出版社).   Some journals have local correspondents reporting on local developments.  It can be surmised from how frequently a journal is updated how useful the relevant SPC division sees it as a platform for guidance and publicity of their views.  Cases from these journals can often be seen reposted on WeChat.