How China's E-Justice System Works?
January 10, 2019 | BY
Guodong Du &Meng YuGuodong Du, attorney at Dentons and Meng Yu, researcher and co-founder of China Justice Observer, write on the various systems behind Chinese courts, and how big data and AI are employed throughout the judicial system to promote efficiency and transparency.
Since Chief Justice Zhou Qiang became the president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) in 2012, the two main focuses of the Chinese courts have been implementing an e-justice system and judicial reforms. In China's latest round of judicial reforms (2014-2017), information technology stood out as one of the main means to achieve the goal of judicial reform with 35 out of the 65 judicial reform tasks relying on information technology.
This article aims to identify the various unique information management systems that connect the courts across the country, as well as the artificial intelligence-empowered high technology deployed within the judiciary. This is definitely in line with China's judicial reforms as it helps streamline information while promoting transparency in enforcement, which are all a direct result of the successful implementation of the technological systems in the Chinese courts.
The information system of Chinese courts mainly includes the following subsystems:
- Office Automation System
This system assists judges in handling cases, which includes allowing judges to reference judgments of the same type of case at hand (i.e., the “similar cases pushing” mechanism); automatic judgment drafting, and automatically correcting errors in the judgment. Chinese courts want to incorporate artificial intelligence into the system to assist judges in making decisions, to improve their efficiency, or to alert judges of abnormal decisions so as to supervise behaviors.
The system can also record all information during the case process in real-time, so that every trace of each case is stored in the system. These traces include information about each node of the judge handling the case, and the supervisor's supervision of the judge. The former type of trace is recorded to supervise the judge; the latter type of trace is recorded to supervise the supervisor and prevent him from interfering with the judge.
- Trial Management System
Since the information of each judge in each case is recorded in the office automation system, and the system has been connected to all courts in the country, the SPC can know all courts, all judges, and all cases in the country in real-time, and the court leadership can also get real-time information about each judge and each case. This has further strengthened the management capacity and hierarchical structure of the Chinese courts.
The SPC also plans to collect judicial data through the system and develop AI systems through big data. The SPC's plans are to have the AI system realize two major functions: one is the aforementioned “similar cases pushing”, that is, the similar cases and their processing methods are selected from the historical data and used by judges' for reference to assist in their decision-making; and the second, through the statistics and analysis of judicial data, to provide reference to the SPC, government's decision-making and the legislature, which would help predict social and economic trends.
- China Judicial Process Information Online
The SPC had established the “China Judicial Process Information Online” website, which requires all courts across the country to provide the parties and their lawyers with information on the trial process of their case, including information on each node in the proceedings, transcripts, audio and video of the trial, case files, and all other legal documents that should be served to the parties.
- China Judgments Online
The SPC established “China Judgments Online” where the judgments from all courts in the country are disclosed to the public. Through this platform, the SPC hopes to enable the public to understand the work of the courts through these instruments, while helping judges to be open to public opinions and media feedback.
- China Trials Online
The SPC has established “China Trials Online,” allowing all courts across the country to broadcast live trials on the platform. Anyone can watch these live videos from anywhere on the Internet.
- China Enforcement Information Online
Chinese courts have long faced the dilemma that judgment documents are difficult to be enforced. This dilemma has caused many judgment creditors to fail to prompt judgment debtors to fulfill their obligations with the help of the courts, resulting in a reduction in market efficiency in China.
In a bid to resolve the enforcement dilemma, the “China Enforcement Information Online” was established, where enforcement procedures and all information of the judgment debtors are published, as a means to procure the judgment debtor to fulfill its obligations.
At present, the SPC refers to “China Judicial Process Information Online”, “China Judgments Online”, “China Trials Online”, and “China Enforcement Information Online” as the four major platforms for open justice, and these platforms are regarded as the most important means for open justice in the Chinese courts.
- Online Enforcement Inquiry and Control System
Similarly, in order to solve the aforementioned enforcement dilemma, the SPC has cooperated with various government departments to establish the online enforcement inquiry and control system. All courts in the country can conveniently inquire the personal information and property information of the judgment debtor on the system and take timely control measures on the property.
- Litigation Service Platform
The SPC and some local courts have respectively established an online platform for litigation services. On these platforms, the parties concerned can apply for case docket, inquire the case information, access case files, receive documents in electronic form, make an appointment to meet judges, submit evidence and documents, and even participate in remote video trials on the platform.
The SPC also encourages courts throughout the country to provide terminal equipment at their premises, which will provide friendlier human-computer interaction tools to facilitate litigation services.
- Judicial Assistance Management Platform
The SPC has also established a judicial assistance management platform. This platform allows the SPC to directly manage foreign-related and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-related judicial assistance cases in all courts across the country. Prior to this, petitions for judicial assistance in civil and commercial matters such as service, evidence-taking, and the recognition and enforcement of judgments required cooperation from the SPC across multiple local courts. This platform increases the efficiency of international judicial assistance as courts can conduct online review, information processing and make enquiries online.
- Human Resource Management System
The human resources management system requires all courts throughout the country to manage its staff, especially judges, within the system. This platform or system allows the courts to learn about the work of the judges on the system, thereby being able to assess the performance of the judges, or discovering and punishing their misconducts.
- Complaint and Grievance System
The SPC has also established a website for reporting (jubao.court.gov.cn) through which the public can complain about various violations and offenses of court personnel.
There is also a complaints and proposals management system (ssxf.court.gov.cn) where parties concerned can appeal against an effective judgment, and communicate with the SPC judges as well as the judge who made the judgment through the system.
- Social Media
The SPC and various courts across the country have established accounts on several social media in China. The courts publish information of major cases, judicial interpretations issued by the SPC, and work plans of the courts, etc. on social networks.
This article was contributed by Guodong Du and Meng Yu who are authors of China Justice Observer.
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