Judicial Information of the
People's Republic of China: A Survey By Zhai Jianxiong
Zhai Jianxiong is an associate research librarian in law in
the reference department, the National Library of China, where he is
responsible for responding to the requests from the national legislature,
government, judiciary and citizens. He has a Bachelor of laws degree and
has been active in introducing China's legal information to the world. In
recent years, he has published several English language articles on the
legal literature of China in journals abroad, such as the National
Library of China and Its Legislative Reference Service in the IFLA
Publication 83: Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of
Asia and the Pacific;Legal Literature in the P. R. China: An
Introduction in the Reference Librarian, Number 60,
1998; and Tax Legislation of the People's Republic of China and Its
Information Sources in the Revenue Law Journal, Volume 8, 1998.
In this guide, he will give a brief introduction to the sources of judicial
information in China, with a focus on judicial
interpretation, an important source of Chinese law.
The Constitution of China provides
that the People's Courts are the judicial organs of the state and exercise
the judicial powers. Soon after the establishment of the People's Republic
of China in 1949, the courts system was established throughout the country.
In 1954, at the first session of the first National People's Congress (NPC),
the Organic Law of the People's Courts was adopted which provided
systematically the nature, functions, organization and activities of the
courts. Now the court system of China consists of:
The Supreme People's Court;
The higher courts instituted at the
levels of provinces and autonomous regions as well as municipalities
directly under the Central Government;
The intermediate courts established at
levels of prefectures (including autonomous prefectures), provincial
capital (including cities under direct control of the provincial or
autonomous region government), relatively big cities and within the
municipalities directly under the Central Government;
The basic courts established at county or
autonomous county levels and in urban districts;
Military courts;
Maritime courts;
Railway transport courts.
Every court is, except the special courts
(military, maritime, and railway transport courts), usually composed of
several institutions such as criminal division, civil division,
intellectual property division and enforcement division. In recent years
the courts of the whole country handles a total of about 6 million cases
annually. Two brief statistical tables relating to the cases received and
settled by the people's courts at various levels are listed below:
Table 1. Statistical Table of Cases Handled by
Courts at Various Levels in 1999
Unit: case
Category
Received
Settled
Total
6,229,512
6,232,302
The
First Instance
5,692,434
5,698,705
The
Second Instance
438,313
436,804
Adjudication Supervision
98,765
96,793
Table 2. Statistical Table
of Classified Cases in 1999
Unit: case
Category
Received
Settled
Total
5,692,434
5,698,705
Criminal Cases
540,008
539,335
Civil Cases
3,519,244
3,517,324
Economic Dispute Cases
1,535,613
1,543,287
Maritime Cases
5,736
5,964
Administrative Cases
97,569
98,759
Source: Law Yearbook of
China: 2000
Procuratorate System
The
People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China is the supervisory
organ of law. In September 1954, the first NPC at its initial session adopted
the first Constitution of China and the Organic Law of the
People's Procuratorate. Both provided for the establishment of a Supreme
People's Procuratorate, local procuratorates at various levels and special
procuratorates. Thereafter, the procuratorial institutions at both central
and local levels were gradually established. Currently, the national
procuratorate system includes:
The Supreme People's Procuratorate;
The local people's procuratorates includes
those in the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly
under the Central Government; the branch people's procuratorates set up
in the cities, prefectures, autonomous prefectures, provincial capitals,
and within the municipalities directly under the Central Government as
well as procuratorates at the county, autonomous county, and urban
districts levels;
Special People's Procuratorates include
military and railway transport procuratorates.
Table 3. Statistical Table of the Institutions
of Procuratorates as at the End of 1999
Unit: case
Category
Institution
Total
4,142
Supreme People's Procuratorates
1
Provincial People's Procuratorates
32
Branch
Procuratorates
Total
557
Branch Procuratorates (at City, Prefecture, Autonomous Prefecture
levels)
531
Military Procuratorates
12
Railway Transport Procuratorates
14
County
Procuratorates
Total
3,376
Procuratorates at County, City, District, Banner levels
3,249
Military Procuratorates
61
Railway Transport Procuratorates
66
Delegated
Procuratorates
Total
176
Procuratorates in Industrial and Mine Districts
13
Procuratorates in Agricultural Reclaimed Regions
8
Procuratorates in Forest District
59
Procuratorates in Prisons, Detention Houses
78
Other Procuratorates
18
Table 4. Statistical Table of Offenders
Approved for Arrest and Cases of Public Prosecution by the Procuratorates in 1999
Unit: case
Case Category
Approved and Arrested
Reviewed Prosecution
case
person
case
person
Total
448,798
663,518
464,785
672,367
Case filed by Authorities of Public Security, State Security and Prison
432,514
645,632
443,377
647,440
Endangering State Security
344
769
248
660
Endangering Public Security
28,160
32,517
34,178
37,861
Undermining the Socialist Market Economy
15,843
24,950
13,253
21,202
Infringing upon Citizen's Rights of the Person and Democratic rights
In China, the judicial interpretation is referred to the
interpretations, made by the national supreme judicial authorities on questions relating to specific application of laws in their judicial
practices according to the authorization of the NPC. The Supreme People's
Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, by virtue of the relevant
decrees adopted by the NPC, both hold the power of formulating the judicial
interpretation.
The judicial interpretation has a long history in China, dating back to
1954, shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the
judicial interpretation appeared along with the rapid progress in the
fields of economic construction and national legislation after the first
Constitution was promulgated. It is urgent for national supreme judicial
authorities to strengthen the interpretative work on the application of law
in order to cope with the problems that arise in handling cases. The
Standing Committee of the NPC passed, for this reason, the Decision on
Interpretation of Law in 1955 which provided that those questions
connected with specific application of laws and decrees should be
interpreted by the Supreme People's Court. Thus the supreme judicial organ,
for the first time, was formally conferred with the power of enacting
judicial interpretation by the highest organ of state power from that time
forward. This power was also confirmed by the legislation afterwards, such as
the Organic Law of People's Court of the People's Republic of China in 1979. Furthermore, the Standing Committee of the 5th NPC at its 19th
session adopted a resolution on improvement of explanation work of the law
providing that:
"Where an interpretation of questions involving the specific
application of laws and decrees in court trials shall be provided by the
Supreme People's Court and; where an interpretation of problems
concerning the concrete application of laws and decrees in procuratorial
practices shall be prescribed by the Supreme People's Porcuratorate. If
there is any difference in principle between them, it should be delivered
to the Standing Committee of NPC for interpretation or decision."
This Resolution stresses not only the power of judicial interpretation
of the Supreme People's Court but also bestows on the Supreme People's
Porcuratorate the same power. Thus the judicial interpretation has, as an
important legal system, appeared in China and has been considered as a
formal source of law. There have been recorded, according to judicial statistical data,
about 4,000 judicial interpretations by the Supreme People's
Court alone or jointly with the Supreme People's Porcuratorate from 1949 to
2000.
Sources of
Judicial Information
The judicial interpretation can be divided into two
categories in the light of subject of issuance The title of them also
varies from circular, reply to answer, instruction, opinions, etc.
The Supreme
People's Court
Official
Gazette
Gazette of the Supreme People's Court of the
People's Republic of China.
Begun in 1985, it is the sole official publication. Published four times
each year, it carries the important national
legislation, official documents, judicial interpretation and typical cases
involving civil, criminal, economic, marine and administrative ones
discussed and adopted by the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's
Court. Among which the judicial interpretations, is, pursuant to the
provisions of the Supreme People's Court, the authoritative edition and can
be cited in the judicial documents and court decisions.
Two bound volumes of the gazette, A Complete
Compilation of Gazette of the Supreme People's Court of the People's
Republic of China: 1985-1994 (People's Court Press, 1995), and
its continuation, 1995-1999 (People's Court Press,
2000), are alternative sources for locating judicial explanations.
General
Compilation
Those judicial interpretation prior to 1985 can be traced
with another publication entitled, A Collected Edition of Judicial
Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of
China: 1949.10-1993.6 (People's Court Press, 1994). This
historical collection, compiled by the research department of the Supreme
People's Court, contains seven parts involving: general provisions, criminal
law, criminal Procedure law, civil law (including general principles of
civil law, marriage law, succession law and copyright law), economic law,
maritime law, civil procedure law, and administrative procedure law. It
collects about 2,200 judicial interpretations issued solely by the Supreme
People's Court or jointly with other central state organs from October 1949
to June 1993, and has been considered as a very useful archival source on
searching for the judicial interpretations of early days.
In addition to
the official publications mentioned above, a commercial collection deserving mention is: A Complete Collection of Judicial
Interpretations of New China: 1949.10 - 1990.6 (China
Procuratorial Press, 1990) and its enlarged edition, 1990.6.-1992.6. This collection, dividing judicial documents
into several parts covering criminal and civil affairs, criminal and civil
procedures, administrative law, lawyer and notarization, judiciary
involving foreign interests, records a great many judicial documents issued
by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate and
other normative documents such as legislative interpretation, law, policy,
circular, reply and so forth adopted or promulgated by NPC, the State
Council and Ministries and Commissions concerned. Furthermore, there is an
English list of the legislative and judicial documents passed or issued
from June 1990 to June 1992, in the end of enlarged edition which will
prove useful to foreign readers.
Subject
Collection
In recent years, the
relevant adjudication divisions of the Supreme People's Court have also
compiled some judicial handbooks subject to their trial jurisdiction.
Administrative Trial
Handbook of
Administrative Trial (People's Court Press, 1987-1999,
yearly). This is a major serial publication concerning administrative
procedure published during the period 1987-1999. Compiled jointly by the
Research Department and the Administrative Division of the Supreme People's
Court, it includes usually three or four score of laws passed by the NPC
and its standing committee, administrative regulations enacted by the State
Council and committees and ministries under it, and judicial
interpretations made by the Supreme People's Court regarding to
administrative proceedings. It groups them into twenty or so subjects,
including: finance, statistics, tourism, industrial and commercial
administration, customs, taxation, audit, social securities, technical
supervision, education, culture, journalism and publication, national
defense, science and technology, public security, civil affairs, justice,
and environmental protection. The first volume cumulated the laws,
regulations and judicial interpretations promulgated or issued during the
period 1979-1986.
A Collection
of Judicial Interpretations on Administrative Proceedings (Jincheng
Press, 2001) and Reference to Administrative Regulations and
Judicial Review (Law Press, 2000-date, yearly) These two subject
compilations on administrative trials are edited by the Administrative
Division of the Supreme People's Court. The former, covering the period 1982
to 2000, compiles nearly 200 judicial documents of the Supreme People's
Court relating to administrative procedure into one volume, and arranges
them into a dozen subjects, which is very convenient for readers to search
for a judicial interpretation on a specific topic. The latter, commencing in 2000 in commemoration of
the tenth anniversary of the
implementation of Administrative Procedural Law of the PRC, is
somewhat of an academic work which is composed usually of several parts
embracing many of the latest materials on administrative trial, such as new laws
and regulations, new judicial interpretations, theses on understanding and
application of judicial interpretation, statistical data, and court
decisions, etc. It merits mention here as the theses in this publication
are well worth reading for their academic nature which can help
readers to understand the meanings of judicial interpretation more clearly.
Civil Trial
Civil trial is the
main work of court's justice for civil case makes up 90% of the total cases
and the civil adjudication personnel also makes up 90% of the whole
judicial personnel. In order to fit in with the needs of developing the
socialist market economy and of accession to the WTO, the Supreme People's
Court underwent in 2000 an important institutional reform which adjusts the
institutions and functions of divisions of civil, economic, intellectual
property, transport and communications and brought them into one category of
civil trial. Thus a big pattern of civil justice has been set up since
then.
There have many
judicial publications relevant to the civil justice been published since
the early days of 80s. Two chief ones are the Civil Handbook(People's Court Press and later, the Mass Press) and the Handbook of Civil Justice (China Legal System Press, 2001). The
former, compiled by the preceding civil division of the Supreme People's
Court and published continuously in six volumes during the period
1979-1998, contains the laws, regulations and judicial documents concerning
civil trial. Though outdated somewhat in content, it is still considered as
a useful source on searching for the judicial documents on administrative
trial issued in the early days of 80s. The latter is a newly published
subject collection of judicial documents which is composed of three
companion volumes entitled, respectively, the Handbook of Civil
Justice (Commerce), Handbook of Civil Justice (Intellectual
Property), and Handbook of Civil Justice
(Foreign Matters, Maritime, Transportation). They contain the
laws, regulations and judicial explanations currently effective. Readers
will find that it is very convenient for them to search for legal documents
in connection with civil trial by using these publications.
There are in addition
several subject compilations edited by the relevant former divisions of the
Supreme People's Court and published during 80-90s' such as:
Handbook of
Transport and Communications Justice (People's Court Press,
1989, edited by division of transport and communications);
Handbook of Economic Justice (People's Court Press,
1988-, economic division, 27 chapters have been published up to 2001 and
will continue to be published by the civil division);
Handbook of Real Estate Justice (Law Press, 1991, 3
volumes, civil court), and its revised ed. New Handbook of Real
Estate Justice: 1949.10-1997.7 (the Supreme People's Court
Press, 1997, also reprinted in 2000);
Handbook of Labour Dispute Justice (Law Press, 1994,
civil court), which can be used to trace outdated legal documents on this
topic.
Since China carries
out the policy of sa ocialist market economy and accession to the World
Trade Organization, many problems and disputes have emerged in the civil
and economic activities. The civil division of the Supreme People's Court,
in response to the new situation appeared in the judicial practices and for the sake
of directing the lower courts to apply the law correctly, edits two
academic series: Reference and Guide to Civil Trial (Law Press, 2000-, quarterly) and Civil and Commercial Trial
Review (Law Press, 1999-, irregularly). These two
series, apart from containing the new judicial interpretations connected
with civil trial, also embrace several special columns such as:
Policy of Civil Justice, issuing
the directive proposals of the Supreme People's Court and the speech of
the leaders of the Supreme People's Court delivered in symposiums and
meetings relevant to civil trial;
Report for Requesting Instructions and
Reply, publishing the approval in reply of the Supreme People's Court
on the report for requesting instructions of provincial higher people's
court regarding civil cases;
Cases Analysis, commenting the
typical civil cases sentenced by courts at various levels and second
instance cases sentenced by the Supreme People Court;
Judge Reading Notes, personal
understanding and experience of senior judges from their trial practices;
Selected Judgments, carrying the
written judgment of typical civil cases decided by the Supreme People's
Court.
The materials and the cases notes in the
series mentioned above are wrote and organized mainly by the judges who are
in the judicial front and partake in the trial, and the information they
offered is considered commonly as accurate and authoritative. So these
publications are play an important role in directing lower courts in their
judicial practices and have a high academic value.
Criminal
Trial
In 1997, the NPC
passed the amendments to the Criminal Law and the Criminal
Procedure Law , and late in the same year the Supreme People's
Court also issued a number of judicial interpretations for the sake of
directing the lower courts to comprehend and apply correctly the amended
laws and improve the quality of criminal justice. Some compilations
dealing with criminal trial were published afterward, among which the
following ones have the best quality.
A
Compilation of the Latest Criminal Laws and Judicial Interpretations (Police Officer Press, 1998 Ed., 1999 Revised Ed.; The University of China
People's Public Security Press, 2001 Revised Ed.), and its companion, A New Handbook of Criminal Laws and Judicial Interpretations (Law Press, 1999). Edited by the Research Department of the Supreme
People's Court, these two collections collect all the effective decisions
and laws passed by the NPC and judicial interpretations and documents
issued by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate,
the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Justice involving
criminal justice and arrange them in an order corresponding to the
structures of the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law and is easy for readers to search for a document. Their revised editions
keep the content updated to 2001.
Handbook of
Criminal Justice Supervision (People's Court Press, 1990). This
is another useful source for tracing criminal judicial explanation prior to
the 1990s. Compiled by the Second Criminal Division of the Supreme People's
Court, it embraces the criminal laws and judicial documents involving
criminal trial since 1979, when the first Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law was promulgated, to 1990 and has permanent
reference value.
Since 1997, when the
amended Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law become
effective, a lot of new problems have emerged in the judicial trial
practices. In order to enhance the judges' abilities to solve problems and
deepen their understanding on the criminal law amended, the First Criminal
Division of the Supreme People's Court publishes a professional research
and directive publication entitled, the Reference to Criminal Trial (Law Press, bimonthly, 1999-date, cumulated yearly). It is written mainly
by the judges with rich trial experience of the said division and
law school professorsl. The content of this book involves several parts
of cases covering some typical crimes, laws, regulations and judicial
explanations, selected verdict document and samples of litigation documents. In the cumulative volume,
there is a subject index and a list in English which will help readers
abroad.
There is another
academic publication entitled A Guide to Criminal Jurisprudence (Law Press, 2000-date, Quarterly) which plays the same role as the former.
Compiled by the Criminal Procuratorial Department of the Supreme People's
Procuratorate, and written by reputed legal experts, it usually includes
several parts such as judicial practice, application of evidence,
legislative interpretation, analysis of disputed case, analysis and
interpretation of newly defined crimes. Each part contains three or four
studying articles focusing on some key and difficult points emerging in the
criminal justice practices, providing incisive analysis offering authoritative opinions to the judicial practitioners.
State
Compensation
On May 12, 1994, the
NPC passed the Law of the People's Republic of China on State
Compensation, which divides the state compensation into two categories:
administrative compensation and criminal compensation. In China, the
problem of criminal compensation is not solved by general judicial
proceedings. The decision for compensation is made by the compensation
commission within the intermediate court and its higher courts. In order to
meet the needs of lower courts in handling compensation cases, the
Compensation Commission Office of the Supreme People's Court edited the Handbook on State Criminal Compensation (People's Court
Press, 1995) which includes the laws and regulations of the NPC, the State
Council, judicial documents of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme
People's Procuratorate concerning criminal compensation promulgated or
issued from 1979 to 1995.
Annotated
Edition
From 1990s, the
China's legislative activities reached it's high tide and many laws
and regulations relating to the establishment of socialist market economy
and protecting the citizen's democratic rights were enacted one after
another according to the constitution amendments passed in 1993 and 1999 which provide that "the state practices socialist market economy" and "the
People's Republic of China governs the country according to law and makes
it a socialist country ruled by law". In order to enable the lower courts
to comprehend and apply the law accurately, the Supreme People's Court
strengthened its work on judicial interpretation and at the same time
organized some well-experienced legal experts, law professors and judges
who had been a party to the drafting of judicial interpretation, to
write some annotated editions of judicial documents, such as:
An Accurate Interpretation on
Accusation in the Criminal Law (People's Court Press, 1998);
A Comprehension and Application
of Interpretation for Certain Problems involving the Application of the
Guaranty Law of the People's Republic of China (Jilin
People's Press, 2000);
A New Interpretation and
Application Concerning the Guaranty Law of the People's Republic of China (Xinhua Press, 2001);
A Comprehension and Application
of Interpretation on Several Problems Relating to the Definition of Moral
Damage Caused by Tort (People's Court Press, 2001);
A Comprehension and Application
of Provisions Regarding the Hearing Scope of Civil Cases (For Trial
Implementation) (People's Court Press, 2001);
An Explanation on the
Implementary Proposals of General Principles of Civil Law of the People's
Republic of China (China Legal System Press, 2001).
Article 129 of the
Constitution of the People's Republic of China states that the people's
procuratorates are state organs for legal supervision and the Supreme
Peoples' Procuratorate is also authorized by NPC to issue the procuratorial
interpretations. The publications published by the Supreme Peoples'
Procuratorate are less than those of the Supreme People's Court's. The
general sources is the Gazette of the Supreme People's
Procuratorate (1991-date, irregularly, about six times a year),
which contains usually the procuratorial interpretations, circulars,
documents and typical criminal cases. The full text of the Gazette from
2000 is available online at http://www.jcrb.com.cn/ournews/asp/zazhi/gb/index.htm. Other
procuratorial documents prior to 1991 can be tracked using the Procuratorial Handbook (China Procuratorial Press, 1979-date,
yearly).
Law Reports
Official
Publication
The legal system of
China is considered part of the Continental Legal System, and court decisions
are not the source of Chinese law and do not have the legal
binding effect in judicial practices, which is different from that of
Anglo-American legal system. But some publications, including judicial reports
in both official and commercial editions, have been published since 1990 for
the purpose of instructing the work of lower courts and procuratorates. The
major official ones are the Selected Cases of the People's Court (People's Court Press, 1992-, Quarterly) and the Series of Criminal Cases (China Procuratorial Press, 1991). The
former, compiled by the China's Applied Law Institute, are subject to the
authorization of the Supreme People's Court and are published regularly. They consist of many big and puzzling cases involving criminal, civil,
economic, administrative, marine ones. The cases compiled are usually
chosen from the courts of all levels and special courts, and each case is
composed of three parts, including fact of case, adjudication, theoretical
analysis and experiences and lessons, which plays an important role in
directing courts to hear the similar cases. Its bound edition, Selected Cases of the People's Court: 1992-1999 (China Legal
System Press, 2000), incorporates the reported cases into seven volumes,
covering respectively criminal, civil, commercial, intellectual property,
maritime, transportation, administrative and state compensation cases. The
latter, containing about 6,000 cases selected from those prosecuted by the
national procuratorial institutions at deferent levels since 1979, when the
Penal Code was enacted, has been published in 23 chapters, and the cases,
selected from about 100 crimes, were classified into scores of titles and
each chapter includes several cases.
Gazette of
the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China is
another authoritative source in respect to the court decision. Each issue
carries several leading cases. In order to bring into fully play the
directive role of typical cases, the Editorial Department of the Gazette
edited a case book, A Complete Collection of Leading Cases From
the Gazette of the Supreme People's Court: 1985.1-1999.2 (Police Officer Press, 1999), which contains about 300 cases that have appeared in the
Gazette during the period 1985-1999.
In recent years, some
local courts at the provincial level have also compiled case books for the
purpose of improving the trial quality of basic courts and the ability of
judges to handle specific cases, and to raise the scholastic levels of
judges. So, a number of local law reports have been published one by one,
such as:
Selected Cases Adjudicated in
the Courts of Guangdong Province (Guangdong People's Press,
1997);
Selected Cases Decided by the
Courts of Qingdao City (Law Press, 2001);
Selected Cases Tried by the
Courts of Tianjin Municipality (Law Press, 2001);
Noted Cases Adjudged by the
Courts of Beijing Municipality (Law Press, 2001);
Annotated Cases Handled by the
Courts of Hebei Province (Law Press, 2001).
Among the local case publications which
deserve to be praised is the case book series entitled Selected
Cases Adjudicated in the Courts of Shanghai (Shanghai People's
Press, 1994-date, yearly). Published under the direction of the Higher
People's Court of Shanghai, each year it includes about 100 or more cases
selected carefully from more than 600 cases recommended by different levels
of courts in Shanghai. These cases cover a wide range of dimensions and are
typical in each type of cases. They reflect the new types of cases appeared
in recent years' social, economic and legal transactions.
Judicial Document Selections of the
People's Court (Law Press, 2001-date) is another official
series of court judgments which consists of a dozens chapters including
the full text of written judgments, awards and mediation documents selected by
the higher people's court of provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities directly under the central government.
English
Version
Presently, most of
law reports are still available in Chinese only, but case publications in
English have already emerged and will continue to grow. The higher people's
court of Shanghai municipality, for example, in
1999 compiled a Chinese-English Edition case book, Protection
of Intellectual Property Rights cases and Comments(Law press,
1999). This book includes a dozen typical cases on intellectual property,
some noted cases about copyright disputes are reported, such as:
Wu Guanzhong v. Shanghai Duoyunxuan &
Hong Kong Yongcheng;
Qian Zhongshu and People's Literature
Press v. Xu Zhifen and Sichuan Literature &Art Press;
Feng Chuyin et al. (successors of Zhang
Leping) v. Jiangsu Sanmao Group Inc.
Of the fourteen cases selected, four are
disputes involving at least one foreign party; three involve a party from
Taiwan or Hong Kong; six are copyright disputes; four are disputes
concerning the right to the exclusive use of trademarks; two are disputes
of unfair competition; one is a dispute over a patent infringement; and one
involves the theft of technical secrets. The judgments for many of these
cases have been affirmed by the Supreme People's Court or published in the
Supreme Court's Gazette or cited by the Supreme People's Court in its news
release. The character of this book is that there are comment attached to
each judgment written by the presiding judges and thus
adding more authenticity and authority to the judgments.
Commercial
Publication
In addition to those
case books compiled by courts, there are some commercial editions have been
published among which the most significant and scholastic one is China's Court Judgments Study (China Renmin University Press,
1992-date, yearly). Compiled Jointly by the Training Center of Senior
Judge of China and the Law School of RenminUniversity of
China, it is a large and voluminous case book published continuously
since 1992 and the cases involved cover the every field of law and are
selected carefully by the legal experts from the cases sentenced by all
levels of courts. Each year it includes about more than 300 cases; and in
each case, the judgment gives a clear report of the fact, the trial process
and the reasoning. In addition, there is also a brief comment written by
legal scholars in the end of the judgment.
A yearbook is a very useful reference source chronologically recording the events and
important documents each year. Presently, there are three legal yearbooks
which are national in scope in China. They are:
China Law
Yearbook (China Law Yearbook Press, 1987-date);
This publication is the most comprehensive legal reference work that
consists of selections from a wide range of legal sources, including
descriptive commentaries on legal construction, major laws and regulations,
judicial instruments, court decisions, judicial statistical data, and
general conditions of legal science and legal education. The first issue of
law yearbook was also published in English from which the readers abroad
can read many translated materials for the first time about China's legal
construction since 1979.
Yearbook of
People's Court (People's Court Press, 1989-1992);
This is a reference book chronologically recording the events and materials
in the area of justice work each year. It usually contains:
Work reports of the Supreme People's
Court and courts of province, autonomous regions, and municipalities
directly under the central government;
Survey of national justice work involving
criminal, civil, economic and administrative trial;
Major laws and judicial interpretations;
Selection of documents for the
administration of justice issued by the Supreme People's Court;
Important Speech of state leaders and of
present, vice-present of the Supreme People's Court;
Report on important meeting;
Selection of cases;
Chronicle;
Judicial Statistical data.
Regrettably, it ceased to publish in
1993.
Procuratorial Yearbook of China (China Procuratorate Press, 1988-date).
This is a comprehensive reference book which records the information and
materials about the procuratorial work of China each year. The columns in
the book commonly include:
Speech and reports delivered by leaders
of state or the Supreme People's Procuratorate;
Work reports of people's procuratorates
of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the
central government;
Selection of the procuratorial documents;
Typical cases;
Foreign exchange and cooperation in
procuratorial area;
Research of theory, newspaper and
magazine and press;
Statistical data, etc.
Historical
Judicial Materials
China Today:
the People's Judicial Work (two volumes, China Today Press,
1993). This book is an essential work on China judicial history. It
records mainly the judicial work and significant events of China from 1949
to 1989 and provides a wealth of historical data about developing process,
achievements, experiences and lessons of courts. The content of the book
encompasses six parts plus a preamble which expound, in detail and
accurately, the justice activities of national courts in different period
and aspects, including some major events in the history such as:
Punishing the criminals of breaking
finance and engaging in commercial speculation to stabilize commodity
Prices and the People's Life in the initial period of New China;
Punishing the criminals of committing
embezzle and theft exposed during the movements against the "Three Evils"
and the "Five Evils" to eliminate the bad influence of the old society;
Handling the Japanese war criminals;
Handling ten principal criminals of Lin-Biao
and Jiang-Qing counter-revolutionary cliques.
In 1999, in commemoration of the 50th
anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a number of
publications pertaining to the history of the people's court have been
published among which the significant ones are as follows:
Collection of Historical Data
Regarding Judicial Statistics of National People's Courts: 1949-1998 (Law Press, 2000). This is the most useful judicial statistical source book
ever published in China. Compiled by the Research Department of the Supreme
People's Court, it collects a wealth of valuable data of judicial
statistics recording chronologically the various kinds of cases tried by
national courts at different levels from 1949 to 1999. Many statistics,
especially those in the period of "Culture Revolution" (1966-1976), are
published for the first time in this book. The whole book consists of three
volumes according to the type of cases. The first volume contains criminal
cases; and the second, civil, economic and administrative cases; and the
third, cases decided by higher courts at provincial level. Each volume
contains two parts, the first part involves the consolidated figures of the
cases sentenced by national courts of all levels and the second part, the
primary data reported by courts of whole country.
Another historical book is the Collection of Report on the Work of the Supreme Peoples' Procuratorate (China Procuratorial Press, 1999) which embraces work reports delivered by
the chief procurators of the Supreme Peoples' Procuratorate at all the
previous National People's Congress from 1955 to 1999 and is an
authoritative source searching for the historical documents and events of
national procuratorial work in the past 50 years.
Local
Judicial Chronicles
Annals is a very useful information sources recording historical events and
documents. China has a fine tradition in compiled chronicles. From 1990s
the publication of judicial annals have mushroomed everywhere in China.
Many courts at different levels compiled their own annals and in some
provincial annals there is also a judicial volume within it. Here is a list
of judicial annals below:
Court Annals of Baotou City (Inner
Mongolia People's Press, 1990);
Court Annals of Chengdu City (Sichuan
People's Press, 1997);
Court Annals of Chuxiong Prefecture (Yunnan
University Press, 1997);
Justice Annals of Xianyang City (Shaanxi
Peeople's Press, 1997);
Justice Annals of Yulin Prefecture (Shaaxi
People's Press, 1999);
Court Annals of Jinhua City (Annals
Press, 1999);
Court Annals of Jingjiang District of
Chengdu City (Sichuan Dictionary Press, 1999);
Court Annals of Wuyi County (Zhejiang
People's Press, 2000);
Court Annals of Jinan City (Shandong
People's Press, 2002);
Henan Provincial Annals: Vol.20: Justice
and Administration of Justice Chronicle (Henan People's Press, 1993);
These annals commonly records the historical
materials and events about local justice work, and chronicle the changes
and development of judicial organs, adjudication, brief biography of judge,
historical documents and photos. They mirror from one side the
justice work of China.
On 22 January, 1999,
CHINA TELECOM and the Information Center of State Economic & Trade
Commission (http://www.setc.gov.cn/),
combined with another forty or more central governmental institutions
responsible for information work, sponsored jointly an e-government project
called the Online Government Programme (http://www.gov.cn),
for the purpose of promoting the information construction of the
government. From that point on government agency sites on the Internet have
proliferated rapidly. Today, over 2,400 governmental web sites, at both
central and local levels, have been set up, among which are included nearly 100 court and Procuratorate web sites.
The major ones are as follows:
Court
Website
The Supreme People's Court (In Chinese) http://www.court.gov.cn/.
This site includes many columns such as Greetings of President,
Organizational Structure of Court, Judicial Interpretation, Announcement of
Hearing, Judgments, Typical Cases, Press and Information, etc. and includes
a lot of authoritative judicial information. In the column of Judicial
Interpretation it contains the judicial documents issued by the Supreme
People's Court in recent years; and in Judgments it includes nearly one
hundred and fifty written judgments involving civil, criminal and
administrative cases decided by the Supreme People's Court from 1999 to the
present; and in Typical Cases it carries in full text some of the latest
appeal cases tried by the Supreme People's Court.
The Court Network of China (In Chinese, summary In
English) http://www.chinacourt.com.cn/
(also try http://en.chinacourt.org)
Sponsored by the Supreme People's Court, this site is a gateway to judicial
information whose emphasis is on reporting the judicial news. In the Chinese
edition it offers a wide range of information involving judicial news,
resume of grand justices, courts information, legal service, judicial
explanation, announcement of court, adjudication documents, and so forth.
From this site, user may read the latest judicial document of the Supreme
People's Court and judgments of some typical cases of the first instance or
second instance of the whole country. It also provides links to courts
sites through the Court Online. In the English edition it provides the
information on judicial news, grand justices, judicial system, laws and
regulations, glossary of legalese, files of trial. The full text of about
one hundred laws and regulations involving foreign matters in English are
available from this English web page.
Network of China Foreign-related Commercial and Maritime Trial (In Chinese and some in English), http://www.ccmt.org.cn/.
A commercial and maritime trial information access site. Includes
information on: Trial News, Adjudication Documents, Announcement on Web,
Typical Cases, latest legislation, etc. Also provides links to provincial
higher courts and maritime courts. In the English edition, it provides the full
text of some typical commercial and marine judgments tried by the Supreme
People's Court and maritime courts.
Beijing Court Network (In Chinese), http://www.bjgf.gov.cn/. Sponsored by Beijing higher people's court and as a part of the Window of
Capital, Beijing government network, this site provides information on judicial
news, a list of Beijing courts, a law database including the latest laws and
regulations, guide for lawsuit, appraisal of justice, and some typical
cases decided by the courts of Beijing region.
Shanghai Court Network (In Chinese), http://www.hshfy.sh.cn/. Provides
information on: survey of courts of Shanghai, court activities, adjudicated
cases. Also provides links to other court sites in Shanghai. In addition,
this site includes full text of many court decisions involving criminal,
civil, economic, administrative, marine, intellectual property,
enforcement, adjudication supervision cases tried by courts at different
levels in Shanghai.
Procuratorial Website
The Supreme People's Procuratorate of China (In Chinese), http://www.spp.gov.cn/gzdt/. This
site provides information on: procuratorial activities, organs and
functions, work report, laws and regulations, selected cases, online
accusation, and links to other procuratorates of whole country. It offers
the work reports in full text delivered to all the previous People's
Congress from 1957 to the present which is of great value for scholars
interested in research on the history of China's procuratorate since the
founding of the People's Republic of China. In addition, it also includes
eighty or so typical cases among which the most are on bribery.
Beijing Procuratorate Network (In Chinese), http://www.bjjc.gov.cn/. The site is
a gateway to procuratorial information of Beijing Municipality which
contains information on: prcuratorial work display, guide for lawsuit,
crime prevention, pictures and news. It also provides links to other
procuratorates in Beijing.
The
People's Procuratorate of the Shanghai Municipality (In
Chinese), http://www.shjcy.gov.cn/. Includes information on: procuratorial news, procuratorial activities,
procuratorial work display, online accusation.
First Branch of the People's Procuratorate of Tianjin Municipality (In Chinese), http://www.tjjchy1.gov.cn/. Provides information on: procuratorial
news, cases summary, inquiry hotline.
Sites of procuratorates at provincial level are listed below, which are all
in Chinese:
The People's Procuratorate of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (In Chinese), http://ltjf.nethome.com.cn/
(not available on September 30, 2002)
Commercial Sites
The People's Court Daily (In
Chinese) http://www.rmfyb.com/. Provides comprehensive judicial information including central and local
legal news, full text of judicial interpretations, the latest laws and
regulations, and over 150 written judgments of the Supreme People's Court.
The Procuratorial Daily of China (In Chinese) http://www.jcrb.com.cn/ournews/asp/index.htm
Provides legal resources including legal news, procuratorate activities,
Comprehensive legal database for retrieving laws, regulations, judicial
interpretations, local statutes, conventions and treaties, cases, etc.
China Law Net (In Both Chinese and English), http://www.isinolaw.com/. This is a
major commercial database site that provides fee-based services. It is
considered the most comprehensive and authoritative English legal
information source in China, having been provided by the
relevant authorities the exclusive right to put on the web the full text of
a large number of English translation of
statutes, judicial interpretations, cases, arbitration awards and other
legal matters. The primary sources in this site include:
Court cases and judicial interpretations
provided by the Supreme People's Court;
Awards of China International Economic
and Trade Arbitration Commission;
Laws of the People's Republic of China
translated by the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's
Congress of China;
Laws and regulations involving foreign
trade provided by the International Economic Affairs Department of the
Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Commission (MOFTEC) under the
State Council;
Maritime Arbitral Awards.
The English judicial information on this
site is very abundant. It not only includes the full text of English
judicial interpretations issued by the Supreme People's Court and the
Supreme People's Procuratorate from 1949 to the present, but also presents
many English court judgments adjudicated by the Supreme People Court since
1994. Six prominent cases in which the procedures applied and the outcomes are
of particular interest to academics and researchers or useful for reference
purposes, are set out for free access. Readers and researchers outside of
China will find this site very useful in searching for English judicial
materials.
In addition to
the official publications mentioned above, a commercial collection deserving mention is: A Complete Collection of Judicial
Interpretations of New China: 1949.10 - 1990.6 (China
Procuratorial Press, 1990) and its enlarged edition, 1990.6.-1992.6. This collection, dividing judicial documents
into several parts covering criminal and civil affairs, criminal and civil
procedures, administrative law, lawyer and notarization, judiciary
involving foreign interests, records a great many judicial documents issued
by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate and
other normative documents such as legislative interpretation, law, policy,
circular, reply and so forth adopted or promulgated by NPC, the State
Council and Ministries and Commissions concerned. Furthermore, there is an
English list of the legislative and judicial documents passed or issued
from June 1990 to June 1992, in the end of enlarged edition which will
prove useful to foreign readers.
Subject
Collection
In recent years, the
relevant adjudication divisions of the Supreme People's Court have also
compiled some judicial handbooks subject to their trial jurisdiction.
Administrative Trial
Handbook of
Administrative Trial (People's Court Press, 1987-1999,
yearly). This is a major serial publication concerning administrative
procedure published during the period 1987-1999. Compiled jointly by the
Research Department and the Administrative Division of the Supreme People's
Court, it includes usually three or four score of laws passed by the NPC
and its standing committee, administrative regulations enacted by the State
Council and committees and ministries under it, and judicial
interpretations made by the Supreme People's Court regarding to
administrative proceedings. It groups them into twenty or so subjects,
including: finance, statistics, tourism, industrial and commercial
administration, customs, taxation, audit, social securities, technical
supervision, education, culture, journalism and publication, national
defense, science and technology, public security, civil affairs, justice,
and environmental protection. The first volume cumulated the laws,
regulations and judicial interpretations promulgated or issued during the
period 1979-1986.
A Collection
of Judicial Interpretations on Administrative Proceedings (Jincheng
Press, 2001) and Reference to Administrative Regulations and
Judicial Review (Law Press, 2000-date, yearly) These two subject
compilations on administrative trials are edited by the Administrative
Division of the Supreme People's Court. The former, covering the period 1982
to 2000, compiles nearly 200 judicial documents of the Supreme People's
Court relating to administrative procedure into one volume, and arranges
them into a dozen subjects, which is very convenient for readers to search
for a judicial interpretation on a specific topic. The latter, commencing in 2000 in commemoration of
the tenth anniversary of the
implementation of Administrative Procedural Law of the PRC, is
somewhat of an academic work which is composed usually of several parts
embracing many of the latest materials on administrative trial, such as new laws
and regulations, new judicial interpretations, theses on understanding and
application of judicial interpretation, statistical data, and court
decisions, etc. It merits mention here as the theses in this publication
are well worth reading for their academic nature which can help
readers to understand the meanings of judicial interpretation more clearly.
Civil Trial
Civil trial is the
main work of court's justice for civil case makes up 90% of the total cases
and the civil adjudication personnel also makes up 90% of the whole
judicial personnel. In order to fit in with the needs of developing the
socialist market economy and of accession to the WTO, the Supreme People's
Court underwent in 2000 an important institutional reform which adjusts the
institutions and functions of divisions of civil, economic, intellectual
property, transport and communications and brought them into one category of
civil trial. Thus a big pattern of civil justice has been set up since
then.
There have many
judicial publications relevant to the civil justice been published since
the early days of 80s. Two chief ones are the Civil Handbook(People's Court Press and later, the Mass Press) and the Handbook of Civil Justice (China Legal System Press, 2001). The
former, compiled by the preceding civil division of the Supreme People's
Court and published continuously in six volumes during the period
1979-1998, contains the laws, regulations and judicial documents concerning
civil trial. Though outdated somewhat in content, it is still considered as
a useful source on searching for the judicial documents on administrative
trial issued in the early days of 80s. The latter is a newly published
subject collection of judicial documents which is composed of three
companion volumes entitled, respectively, the Handbook of Civil
Justice (Commerce), Handbook of Civil Justice (Intellectual
Property), and Handbook of Civil Justice
(Foreign Matters, Maritime, Transportation). They contain the
laws, regulations and judicial explanations currently effective. Readers
will find that it is very convenient for them to search for legal documents
in connection with civil trial by using these publications.
There are in addition
several subject compilations edited by the relevant former divisions of the
Supreme People's Court and published during 80-90s' such as:
Handbook of
Transport and Communications Justice (People's Court Press,
1989, edited by division of transport and communications);
Handbook of Economic Justice (People's Court Press,
1988-, economic division, 27 chapters have been published up to 2001 and
will continue to be published by the civil division);
Handbook of Real Estate Justice (Law Press, 1991, 3
volumes, civil court), and its revised ed. New Handbook of Real
Estate Justice: 1949.10-1997.7 (the Supreme People's Court
Press, 1997, also reprinted in 2000);
Handbook of Labour Dispute Justice (Law Press, 1994,
civil court), which can be used to trace outdated legal documents on this
topic.
Since China carries
out the policy of sa ocialist market economy and accession to the World
Trade Organization, many problems and disputes have emerged in the civil
and economic activities. The civil division of the Supreme People's Court,
in response to the new situation appeared in the judicial practices and for the sake
of directing the lower courts to apply the law correctly, edits two
academic series: Reference and Guide to Civil Trial (Law Press, 2000-, quarterly) and Civil and Commercial Trial
Review (Law Press, 1999-, irregularly). These two
series, apart from containing the new judicial interpretations connected
with civil trial, also embrace several special columns such as:
Policy of Civil Justice, issuing
the directive proposals of the Supreme People's Court and the speech of
the leaders of the Supreme People's Court delivered in symposiums and
meetings relevant to civil trial;
Report for Requesting Instructions and
Reply, publishing the approval in reply of the Supreme People's Court
on the report for requesting instructions of provincial higher people's
court regarding civil cases;
Cases Analysis, commenting the
typical civil cases sentenced by courts at various levels and second
instance cases sentenced by the Supreme People Court;
Judge Reading Notes, personal
understanding and experience of senior judges from their trial practices;
Selected Judgments, carrying the
written judgment of typical civil cases decided by the Supreme People's
Court.
The materials and the cases notes in the
series mentioned above are wrote and organized mainly by the judges who are
in the judicial front and partake in the trial, and the information they
offered is considered commonly as accurate and authoritative. So these
publications are play an important role in directing lower courts in their
judicial practices and have a high academic value.
Criminal
Trial
In 1997, the NPC
passed the amendments to the Criminal Law and the Criminal
Procedure Law , and late in the same year the Supreme People's
Court also issued a number of judicial interpretations for the sake of
directing the lower courts to comprehend and apply correctly the amended
laws and improve the quality of criminal justice. Some compilations
dealing with criminal trial were published afterward, among which the
following ones have the best quality.
A
Compilation of the Latest Criminal Laws and Judicial Interpretations (Police Officer Press, 1998 Ed., 1999 Revised Ed.; The University of China
People's Public Security Press, 2001 Revised Ed.), and its companion, A New Handbook of Criminal Laws and Judicial Interpretations (Law Press, 1999). Edited by the Research Department of the Supreme
People's Court, these two collections collect all the effective decisions
and laws passed by the NPC and judicial interpretations and documents
issued by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate,
the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Justice involving
criminal justice and arrange them in an order corresponding to the
structures of the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law and is easy for readers to search for a document. Their revised editions
keep the content updated to 2001.
Handbook of
Criminal Justice Supervision (People's Court Press, 1990). This
is another useful source for tracing criminal judicial explanation prior to
the 1990s. Compiled by the Second Criminal Division of the Supreme People's
Court, it embraces the criminal laws and judicial documents involving
criminal trial since 1979, when the first Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law was promulgated, to 1990 and has permanent
reference value.
Since 1997, when the
amended Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law become
effective, a lot of new problems have emerged in the judicial trial
practices. In order to enhance the judges' abilities to solve problems and
deepen their understanding on the criminal law amended, the First Criminal
Division of the Supreme People's Court publishes a professional research
and directive publication entitled, the Reference to Criminal Trial (Law Press, bimonthly, 1999-date, cumulated yearly). It is written mainly
by the judges with rich trial experience of the said division and
law school professorsl. The content of this book involves several parts
of cases covering some typical crimes, laws, regulations and judicial
explanations, selected verdict document and samples of litigation documents. In the cumulative volume,
there is a subject index and a list in English which will help readers
abroad.
There is another
academic publication entitled A Guide to Criminal Jurisprudence (Law Press, 2000-date, Quarterly) which plays the same role as the former.
Compiled by the Criminal Procuratorial Department of the Supreme People's
Procuratorate, and written by reputed legal experts, it usually includes
several parts such as judicial practice, application of evidence,
legislative interpretation, analysis of disputed case, analysis and
interpretation of newly defined crimes. Each part contains three or four
studying articles focusing on some key and difficult points emerging in the
criminal justice practices, providing incisive analysis offering authoritative opinions to the judicial practitioners.
State
Compensation
On May 12, 1994, the
NPC passed the Law of the People's Republic of China on State
Compensation, which divides the state compensation into two categories:
administrative compensation and criminal compensation. In China, the
problem of criminal compensation is not solved by general judicial
proceedings. The decision for compensation is made by the compensation
commission within the intermediate court and its higher courts. In order to
meet the needs of lower courts in handling compensation cases, the
Compensation Commission Office of the Supreme People's Court edited the Handbook on State Criminal Compensation (People's Court
Press, 1995) which includes the laws and regulations of the NPC, the State
Council, judicial documents of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme
People's Procuratorate concerning criminal compensation promulgated or
issued from 1979 to 1995.
Annotated
Edition
From 1990s, the
China's legislative activities reached it's high tide and many laws
and regulations relating to the establishment of socialist market economy
and protecting the citizen's democratic rights were enacted one after
another according to the constitution amendments passed in 1993 and 1999 which provide that "the state practices socialist market economy" and "the
People's Republic of China governs the country according to law and makes
it a socialist country ruled by law". In order to enable the lower courts
to comprehend and apply the law accurately, the Supreme People's Court
strengthened its work on judicial interpretation and at the same time
organized some well-experienced legal experts, law professors and judges
who had been a party to the drafting of judicial interpretation, to
write some annotated editions of judicial documents, such as:
An Accurate Interpretation on
Accusation in the Criminal Law (People's Court Press, 1998);
A Comprehension and Application
of Interpretation for Certain Problems involving the Application of the
Guaranty Law of the People's Republic of China (Jilin
People's Press, 2000);
A New Interpretation and
Application Concerning the Guaranty Law of the People's Republic of China (Xinhua Press, 2001);
A Comprehension and Application
of Interpretation on Several Problems Relating to the Definition of Moral
Damage Caused by Tort (People's Court Press, 2001);
A Comprehension and Application
of Provisions Regarding the Hearing Scope of Civil Cases (For Trial
Implementation) (People's Court Press, 2001);
An Explanation on the
Implementary Proposals of General Principles of Civil Law of the People's
Republic of China (China Legal System Press, 2001).
Article 129 of the
Constitution of the People's Republic of China states that the people's
procuratorates are state organs for legal supervision and the Supreme
Peoples' Procuratorate is also authorized by NPC to issue the procuratorial
interpretations. The publications published by the Supreme Peoples'
Procuratorate are less than those of the Supreme People's Court's. The
general sources is the Gazette of the Supreme People's
Procuratorate (1991-date, irregularly, about six times a year),
which contains usually the procuratorial interpretations, circulars,
documents and typical criminal cases. The full text of the Gazette from
2000 is available online at http://www.jcrb.com.cn/ournews/asp/zazhi/gb/index.htm. Other
procuratorial documents prior to 1991 can be tracked using the Procuratorial Handbook (China Procuratorial Press, 1979-date,
yearly).
Law Reports
Official
Publication
The legal system of
China is considered part of the Continental Legal System, and court decisions
are not the source of Chinese law and do not have the legal
binding effect in judicial practices, which is different from that of
Anglo-American legal system. But some publications, including judicial reports
in both official and commercial editions, have been published since 1990 for
the purpose of instructing the work of lower courts and procuratorates. The
major official ones are the Selected Cases of the People's Court (People's Court Press, 1992-, Quarterly) and the Series of Criminal Cases (China Procuratorial Press, 1991). The
former, compiled by the China's Applied Law Institute, are subject to the
authorization of the Supreme People's Court and are published regularly. They consist of many big and puzzling cases involving criminal, civil,
economic, administrative, marine ones. The cases compiled are usually
chosen from the courts of all levels and special courts, and each case is
composed of three parts, including fact of case, adjudication, theoretical
analysis and experiences and lessons, which plays an important role in
directing courts to hear the similar cases. Its bound edition, Selected Cases of the People's Court: 1992-1999 (China Legal
System Press, 2000), incorporates the reported cases into seven volumes,
covering respectively criminal, civil, commercial, intellectual property,
maritime, transportation, administrative and state compensation cases. The
latter, containing about 6,000 cases selected from those prosecuted by the
national procuratorial institutions at deferent levels since 1979, when the
Penal Code was enacted, has been published in 23 chapters, and the cases,
selected from about 100 crimes, were classified into scores of titles and
each chapter includes several cases.
Gazette of
the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China is
another authoritative source in respect to the court decision. Each issue
carries several leading cases. In order to bring into fully play the
directive role of typical cases, the Editorial Department of the Gazette
edited a case book, A Complete Collection of Leading Cases From
the Gazette of the Supreme People's Court: 1985.1-1999.2 (Police Officer Press, 1999), which contains about 300 cases that have appeared in the
Gazette during the period 1985-1999.
In recent years, some
local courts at the provincial level have also compiled case books for the
purpose of improving the trial quality of basic courts and the ability of
judges to handle specific cases, and to raise the scholastic levels of
judges. So, a number of local law reports have been published one by one,
such as:
Selected Cases Adjudicated in
the Courts of Guangdong Province (Guangdong People's Press,
1997);
Selected Cases Decided by the
Courts of Qingdao City (Law Press, 2001);
Selected Cases Tried by the
Courts of Tianjin Municipality (Law Press, 2001);
Noted Cases Adjudged by the
Courts of Beijing Municipality (Law Press, 2001);
Annotated Cases Handled by the
Courts of Hebei Province (Law Press, 2001).
Among the local case publications which
deserve to be praised is the case book series entitled Selected
Cases Adjudicated in the Courts of Shanghai (Shanghai People's
Press, 1994-date, yearly). Published under the direction of the Higher
People's Court of Shanghai, each year it includes about 100 or more cases
selected carefully from more than 600 cases recommended by different levels
of courts in Shanghai. These cases cover a wide range of dimensions and are
typical in each type of cases. They reflect the new types of cases appeared
in recent years' social, economic and legal transactions.
Judicial Document Selections of the
People's Court (Law Press, 2001-date) is another official
series of court judgments which consists of a dozens chapters including
the full text of written judgments, awards and mediation documents selected by
the higher people's court of provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities directly under the central government.
English
Version
Presently, most of
law reports are still available in Chinese only, but case publications in
English have already emerged and will continue to grow. The higher people's
court of Shanghai municipality, for example, in
1999 compiled a Chinese-English Edition case book, Protection
of Intellectual Property Rights cases and Comments(Law press,
1999). This book includes a dozen typical cases on intellectual property,
some noted cases about copyright disputes are reported, such as:
Wu Guanzhong v. Shanghai Duoyunxuan &
Hong Kong Yongcheng;
Qian Zhongshu and People's Literature
Press v. Xu Zhifen and Sichuan Literature &Art Press;
Feng Chuyin et al. (successors of Zhang
Leping) v. Jiangsu Sanmao Group Inc.
Of the fourteen cases selected, four are
disputes involving at least one foreign party; three involve a party from
Taiwan or Hong Kong; six are copyright disputes; four are disputes
concerning the right to the exclusive use of trademarks; two are disputes
of unfair competition; one is a dispute over a patent infringement; and one
involves the theft of technical secrets. The judgments for many of these
cases have been affirmed by the Supreme People's Court or published in the
Supreme Court's Gazette or cited by the Supreme People's Court in its news
release. The character of this book is that there are comment attached to
each judgment written by the presiding judges and thus
adding more authenticity and authority to the judgments.
Commercial
Publication
In addition to those
case books compiled by courts, there are some commercial editions have been
published among which the most significant and scholastic one is China's Court Judgments Study (China Renmin University Press,
1992-date, yearly). Compiled Jointly by the Training Center of Senior
Judge of China and the Law School of RenminUniversity of
China, it is a large and voluminous case book published continuously
since 1992 and the cases involved cover the every field of law and are
selected carefully by the legal experts from the cases sentenced by all
levels of courts. Each year it includes about more than 300 cases; and in
each case, the judgment gives a clear report of the fact, the trial process
and the reasoning. In addition, there is also a brief comment written by
legal scholars in the end of the judgment.
A yearbook is a very useful reference source chronologically recording the events and
important documents each year. Presently, there are three legal yearbooks
which are national in scope in China. They are:
China Law
Yearbook (China Law Yearbook Press, 1987-date);
This publication is the most comprehensive legal reference work that
consists of selections from a wide range of legal sources, including
descriptive commentaries on legal construction, major laws and regulations,
judicial instruments, court decisions, judicial statistical data, and
general conditions of legal science and legal education. The first issue of
law yearbook was also published in English from which the readers abroad
can read many translated materials for the first time about China's legal
construction since 1979.
Yearbook of
People's Court (People's Court Press, 1989-1992);
This is a reference book chronologically recording the events and materials
in the area of justice work each year. It usually contains:
Work reports of the Supreme People's
Court and courts of province, autonomous regions, and municipalities
directly under the central government;
Survey of national justice work involving
criminal, civil, economic and administrative trial;
Major laws and judicial interpretations;
Selection of documents for the
administration of justice issued by the Supreme People's Court;
Important Speech of state leaders and of
present, vice-present of the Supreme People's Court;
Report on important meeting;
Selection of cases;
Chronicle;
Judicial Statistical data.
Regrettably, it ceased to publish in
1993.
Procuratorial Yearbook of China (China Procuratorate Press, 1988-date).
This is a comprehensive reference book which records the information and
materials about the procuratorial work of China each year. The columns in
the book commonly include:
Speech and reports delivered by leaders
of state or the Supreme People's Procuratorate;
Work reports of people's procuratorates
of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the
central government;
Selection of the procuratorial documents;
Typical cases;
Foreign exchange and cooperation in
procuratorial area;
Research of theory, newspaper and
magazine and press;
Statistical data, etc.
Historical
Judicial Materials
China Today:
the People's Judicial Work (two volumes, China Today Press,
1993). This book is an essential work on China judicial history. It
records mainly the judicial work and significant events of China from 1949
to 1989 and provides a wealth of historical data about developing process,
achievements, experiences and lessons of courts. The content of the book
encompasses six parts plus a preamble which expound, in detail and
accurately, the justice activities of national courts in different period
and aspects, including some major events in the history such as:
Punishing the criminals of breaking
finance and engaging in commercial speculation to stabilize commodity
Prices and the People's Life in the initial period of New China;
Punishing the criminals of committing
embezzle and theft exposed during the movements against the "Three Evils"
and the "Five Evils" to eliminate the bad influence of the old society;
Handling the Japanese war criminals;
Handling ten principal criminals of Lin-Biao
and Jiang-Qing counter-revolutionary cliques.
In 1999, in commemoration of the 50th
anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a number of
publications pertaining to the history of the people's court have been
published among which the significant ones are as follows:
Collection of Historical Data
Regarding Judicial Statistics of National People's Courts: 1949-1998 (Law Press, 2000). This is the most useful judicial statistical source book
ever published in China. Compiled by the Research Department of the Supreme
People's Court, it collects a wealth of valuable data of judicial
statistics recording chronologically the various kinds of cases tried by
national courts at different levels from 1949 to 1999. Many statistics,
especially those in the period of "Culture Revolution" (1966-1976), are
published for the first time in this book. The whole book consists of three
volumes according to the type of cases. The first volume contains criminal
cases; and the second, civil, economic and administrative cases; and the
third, cases decided by higher courts at provincial level. Each volume
contains two parts, the first part involves the consolidated figures of the
cases sentenced by national courts of all levels and the second part, the
primary data reported by courts of whole country.
Another historical book is the Collection of Report on the Work of the Supreme Peoples' Procuratorate (China Procuratorial Press, 1999) which embraces work reports delivered by
the chief procurators of the Supreme Peoples' Procuratorate at all the
previous National People's Congress from 1955 to 1999 and is an
authoritative source searching for the historical documents and events of
national procuratorial work in the past 50 years.
Local
Judicial Chronicles
Annals is a very useful information sources recording historical events and
documents. China has a fine tradition in compiled chronicles. From 1990s
the publication of judicial annals have mushroomed everywhere in China.
Many courts at different levels compiled their own annals and in some
provincial annals there is also a judicial volume within it. Here is a list
of judicial annals below:
Court Annals of Baotou City (Inner
Mongolia People's Press, 1990);
Court Annals of Chengdu City (Sichuan
People's Press, 1997);
Court Annals of Chuxiong Prefecture (Yunnan
University Press, 1997);
Justice Annals of Xianyang City (Shaanxi
Peeople's Press, 1997);
Justice Annals of Yulin Prefecture (Shaaxi
People's Press, 1999);
Court Annals of Jinhua City (Annals
Press, 1999);
Court Annals of Jingjiang District of
Chengdu City (Sichuan Dictionary Press, 1999);
Court Annals of Wuyi County (Zhejiang
People's Press, 2000);
Court Annals of Jinan City (Shandong
People's Press, 2002);
Henan Provincial Annals: Vol.20: Justice
and Administration of Justice Chronicle (Henan People's Press, 1993);
These annals commonly records the historical
materials and events about local justice work, and chronicle the changes
and development of judicial organs, adjudication, brief biography of judge,
historical documents and photos. They mirror from one side the
justice work of China.
On 22 January, 1999,
CHINA TELECOM and the Information Center of State Economic & Trade
Commission (http://www.setc.gov.cn/),
combined with another forty or more central governmental institutions
responsible for information work, sponsored jointly an e-government project
called the Online Government Programme (http://www.gov.cn),
for the purpose of promoting the information construction of the
government. From that point on government agency sites on the Internet have
proliferated rapidly. Today, over 2,400 governmental web sites, at both
central and local levels, have been set up, among which are included nearly 100 court and Procuratorate web sites.
The major ones are as follows:
Court
Website
The Supreme People's Court (In Chinese) http://www.court.gov.cn/.
This site includes many columns such as Greetings of President,
Organizational Structure of Court, Judicial Interpretation, Announcement of
Hearing, Judgments, Typical Cases, Press and Information, etc. and includes
a lot of authoritative judicial information. In the column of Judicial
Interpretation it contains the judicial documents issued by the Supreme
People's Court in recent years; and in Judgments it includes nearly one
hundred and fifty written judgments involving civil, criminal and
administrative cases decided by the Supreme People's Court from 1999 to the
present; and in Typical Cases it carries in full text some of the latest
appeal cases tried by the Supreme People's Court.
The Court Network of China (In Chinese, summary In
English) http://www.chinacourt.com.cn/
(also try http://en.chinacourt.org)
Sponsored by the Supreme People's Court, this site is a gateway to judicial
information whose emphasis is on reporting the judicial news. In the Chinese
edition it offers a wide range of information involving judicial news,
resume of grand justices, courts information, legal service, judicial
explanation, announcement of court, adjudication documents, and so forth.
From this site, user may read the latest judicial document of the Supreme
People's Court and judgments of some typical cases of the first instance or
second instance of the whole country. It also provides links to courts
sites through the Court Online. In the English edition it provides the
information on judicial news, grand justices, judicial system, laws and
regulations, glossary of legalese, files of trial. The full text of about
one hundred laws and regulations involving foreign matters in English are
available from this English web page.
Network of China Foreign-related Commercial and Maritime Trial (In Chinese and some in English), http://www.ccmt.org.cn/.
A commercial and maritime trial information access site. Includes
information on: Trial News, Adjudication Documents, Announcement on Web,
Typical Cases, latest legislation, etc. Also provides links to provincial
higher courts and maritime courts. In the English edition, it provides the full
text of some typical commercial and marine judgments tried by the Supreme
People's Court and maritime courts.
Beijing Court Network (In Chinese), http://www.bjgf.gov.cn/. Sponsored by Beijing higher people's court and as a part of the Window of
Capital, Beijing government network, this site provides information on judicial
news, a list of Beijing courts, a law database including the latest laws and
regulations, guide for lawsuit, appraisal of justice, and some typical
cases decided by the courts of Beijing region.
Shanghai Court Network (In Chinese), http://www.hshfy.sh.cn/. Provides
information on: survey of courts of Shanghai, court activities, adjudicated
cases. Also provides links to other court sites in Shanghai. In addition,
this site includes full text of many court decisions involving criminal,
civil, economic, administrative, marine, intellectual property,
enforcement, adjudication supervision cases tried by courts at different
levels in Shanghai.
Procuratorial Website
The Supreme People's Procuratorate of China (In Chinese), http://www.spp.gov.cn/gzdt/. This
site provides information on: procuratorial activities, organs and
functions, work report, laws and regulations, selected cases, online
accusation, and links to other procuratorates of whole country. It offers
the work reports in full text delivered to all the previous People's
Congress from 1957 to the present which is of great value for scholars
interested in research on the history of China's procuratorate since the
founding of the People's Republic of China. In addition, it also includes
eighty or so typical cases among which the most are on bribery.
Beijing Procuratorate Network (In Chinese), http://www.bjjc.gov.cn/. The site is
a gateway to procuratorial information of Beijing Municipality which
contains information on: prcuratorial work display, guide for lawsuit,
crime prevention, pictures and news. It also provides links to other
procuratorates in Beijing.
The
People's Procuratorate of the Shanghai Municipality (In
Chinese), http://www.shjcy.gov.cn/. Includes information on: procuratorial news, procuratorial activities,
procuratorial work display, online accusation.
First Branch of the People's Procuratorate of Tianjin Municipality (In Chinese), http://www.tjjchy1.gov.cn/. Provides information on: procuratorial
news, cases summary, inquiry hotline.
Sites of procuratorates at provincial level are listed below, which are all
in Chinese:
The People's Procuratorate of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (In Chinese), http://ltjf.nethome.com.cn/
(not available on September 30, 2002)
Commercial Sites
The People's Court Daily (In
Chinese) http://www.rmfyb.com/. Provides comprehensive judicial information including central and local
legal news, full text of judicial interpretations, the latest laws and
regulations, and over 150 written judgments of the Supreme People's Court.
The Procuratorial Daily of China (In Chinese) http://www.jcrb.com.cn/ournews/asp/index.htm
Provides legal resources including legal news, procuratorate activities,
Comprehensive legal database for retrieving laws, regulations, judicial
interpretations, local statutes, conventions and treaties, cases, etc.
China Law Net (In Both Chinese and English), http://www.isinolaw.com/. This is a
major commercial database site that provides fee-based services. It is
considered the most comprehensive and authoritative English legal
information source in China, having been provided by the
relevant authorities the exclusive right to put on the web the full text of
a large number of English translation of
statutes, judicial interpretations, cases, arbitration awards and other
legal matters. The primary sources in this site include:
Court cases and judicial interpretations
provided by the Supreme People's Court;
Awards of China International Economic
and Trade Arbitration Commission;
Laws of the People's Republic of China
translated by the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's
Congress of China;
Laws and regulations involving foreign
trade provided by the International Economic Affairs Department of the
Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Commission (MOFTEC) under the
State Council;
Maritime Arbitral Awards.
The English judicial information on this
site is very abundant. It not only includes the full text of English
judicial interpretations issued by the Supreme People's Court and the
Supreme People's Procuratorate from 1949 to the present, but also presents
many English court judgments adjudicated by the Supreme People Court since
1994. Six prominent cases in which the procedures applied and the outcomes are
of particular interest to academics and researchers or useful for reference
purposes, are set out for free access. Readers and researchers outside of
China will find this site very useful in searching for English judicial
materials.