A useful source of official information that the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issues to the professional and general public is white papers, annual reports, and occasional reports. In the past, more of these reports had English translations, but there seem to be fewer in recent years. I surmise some of the reasons include: possibly fewer judges in a managerial role ((deputy) division head) with English language skills robust enough to review translations; the people with those skills are overburdened with other responsibilities; or these reports are not seen as a way to promote the image of the SPC abroad.
Thus far, these reports have been published in a number of different areas, listed below. Neither the Chinese nor the English versions of the SPC’s website provides easy access to all these reports, although the English version has a tab labeled white papers. It would appear to be useful for the Chinese version of the website to have a tab providing easy access.
The SPC’s English language website, about which I wrote in June, 2024, should still be graded as “needs to improve.” I surmise that the website is not the responsibility of one SPC institution. If it were, it would be much better. It gives the impression that no one has considered how the website could be better used to promote the SPC’s image with the foreign public. Having recently reviewed a number of other Chinese government websites, I can say that foreign language websites are generally not a priority matter among most Chinese state organs.
Thus far, these reports have been published in several different areas: intellectual property law; environmental and natural resources law; judicial reform, including transparency and diversified dispute resolution; cross-border law (Greater Bay Area, judicial review of arbitration, and maritime adjudication).
In the area of cross-border law, in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the SPC issued a report on its work supporting the Greater Bay Area strategy. Some of these reports are issued in the form of separate publications.
For several areas of law, such as criminal law and administrative litigation, I surmise that it would be “inconvenient” to publish a white paper or annual report. I wrote here earlier about difficulties in finding the full text of white papers in the lower courts.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
| 2024 | Environmental and Natural Resources Adjudication of China 2024 (中国环境资源审判 2024), Chinese only, report downloadable |
| 2023 | Environmental & Natural Resources Adjudication of China 中国环境资源审判 2023， Chinese only, report downloadable |
| 2022 | China’s Environmental Judicial Development 2023 中国环境司法发展报告 （总体观察篇）2023 (Chinese only), report downloadable |
| 2022 | Environmental & Natural Resources Adjudication of China (2022) (download link on the official SPC website is broken) |
| 2021 | Environment & Natural Resources Adjudication of China, 中国环境资源审判（2021）Chinese only, report dowloadable |
| 2020 | Environment & Natural Resources Adjudication of China, 中国环境资源审判（2020）Chinese only, report cannot be downloaded from the official website |
| 2017-2018 | Environment & Resources Adjudication of China, English only |
| 2016-2017 | Environment & Resources Adjudication of China, English only |
JUDICIAL REFORM & TRANSPARENCY
| 2015-2020 | The Reform of Diversified Dispute Resolution Mechanism of Chinese Courts, bilingual downloadable |
| 2023 | Judicial Reform of Chinese Courts 2013-2022, bilingual and downloadable |
| 2013-2018 | Judicial Reform of Chinese Courts 2013-2018, bilingual and downloadable |
| 2017 | Court Reform in China [2017], but not downloadable as a PDF file |
| 2017 | Judicial Transparency by People’s Courts, but not downloadable as a PDF file |
| 2016 | Judicial Reform of Chinese Courts, but not downloadable as a PDF file |
| 2015 | Judicial Transparency of Chinese Courts, but not downloadable as a PDF file |
FOREIGN-RELATED AND MARITIME CASES
| 2025 | 中国海事审判 （2022-2024）(link to a QR code on the SPC official website to download the report) China Maritime Trial (2022-2024) (bilingual) (link to the report uploaded on this blog) |
| 2023 | Supreme People’s Court Annual Report of Judicial Review of Arbitration (2023), 商事仲裁司法审查年度报告 Chinese only, English version is forthcoming |
| Supreme People’s Court Annual Report of Judicial Review of Arbitration (2020), 最高人民法院商事仲裁司法审查年度报告（2020) available as a bilingual book for purchase | |
| 2019 | Supreme People’s Court Annual Report of Judicial Review of Arbitration (2019) 最高人民法院商事仲裁司法审查年度报告（2019）(available as bilingual book for purchase) |
| China Maritime Trial 2018-2021，最高人民法院——《中国海事审判白皮书（2018—2021） | |
| 2015-2017 | Maritime Adjudication of China （2015—2017） |
| 1984-2014 | China’s Maritime Adjudication (1984-2014) （English） |
GREATER BAY AREA
| 2022 | Report on the People’s Court Serving and Providing Safeguards for the Situation of the Construction of the Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau Greater Bay Area 人民法院服务和保障粤港澳大湾区建设情况报告（2019-2022）(Chinese only) |
Supreme People's Court Monitor 