lecture 3 judiciary
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Introduction to Chinese LawLecture 3
Judiciary
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Judiciary Organs ()
Courts();
Procuratorates ();
Public security/police ()
State security ();
The system of judicial administration ();
Notary public ();
Prison administrative system.
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Courts: Current Status
Constitutional Position
Art 123to exercise the adjudicative power of the state exclusively
Status has risen significantly; have played an increasing role in society
Statistics on cases handled (SPC Annual Work Report 2009 to NPC,
p198)
Courts have expanded beyond orthodox role as instruments of
proletarian dictatorship meting out punishment to criminals and
enemies of people
now expected to serve as impartial arbiters of civil and commercial
disputes and administrative law disputes between different types of
parties
Reform efforts of SPC to make courts more dignified institutions
Judges gowns, judges gavels, lawyers gowns, etc.
Reform efforts of SPC to promote institutionalization and
professionalization of the judiciary
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Courts: Current Status
Recent shift in work and orientation of courts shift of policy and emphasis under new President Wang Shengjun
(2008-present)
SPCs advocacy for mass line and judicial work for the people;
stress on duty of court to serve CPC goals and policies;
emphasis on taking into consideration social circumstances andpublic sentiments/feelings in judicial work;
implicitly downgrading importance of strict adherence to legal rules
promoting mediation as preferable to adjudication.
SPCs promotion of public trial and publicity and
transparency of judicial work
central theme of judicial reform in recent years
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Courts: Problems
Judicial corruption and abuse of judicial power
Local protectionism/ favoritism
Some local and departmental leaders have been found illegally
meddling in the enforcement of court orders to protect their vested
local and departmental economic interests.
Persistent lack of professionalism Solutions
Judicial reform: three rounds of five-year-reform outlines (1999-2013)
Has reform really solved the problems?
Gaps in implementation and unbalanced implementation in differentlocalities in China
Major constraints on reform: to be found in the current politicalstructure
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Courts: Structure (1)
Supreme Peoples Court
MilitaryCourt
High Court
Intermediate Court
Basic Court
Railway
Court
Maritime
Court
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Courts: Structure (2)
Hierarchy Four levels: Supreme Provincial High Intermediate District Basic
Special courts: Maritime, Military, Railway.
Divisions
Reception Division Civil, Criminal, and Administrative Divisions (adjudication)
Enforcement Division (enforcing judgments and awards)
Supervision Division (receiving petitions, supervising adjudications)
Staffing President (), Vice-presidents,
Division Heads (),
Judges (), Deputy judges/Assistant judges ()
Clerks ().
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Courts: Powers (1)
Adjudication First instance and appealed cases
Adjudication through judicial supervision (higher courts over lower courts)
Approving death penalty sentences (by SPC, since January 2007)
Enforcement
Judgments, arbitral awards, payment orders, etc
Interpretation of laws (judicial interpretation)
Only judicial interpretations by SPC carry the force of law (quasi-
legislation, de facto law-making power)
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Courts: Powers (2)
Supervision over lower courts Principle: The judicial work of peoples courts at lower levels shall
be subject to supervision by the peoples courts at higher levels.
(Art 127 of Con; Article 17 of Organic Law)
Methods
Issuing guidelines to lower courts (replies, notices,
instructions, etc)
Training of judges: SPC operates the National Judges
College
Ongoing reform (textbook, pp188-89)
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SPC: Recent Change in Leadership
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Relationship with the Party (1):
(General: Guidance from CCP)
Relationship between judicial organs and CCP Leadership of CPC in political-legal work (functions performed by
judicial organs and political-legal cadres)
Mechanism of providing leadership: through political-legalcommittees (PLCs) within each party committee at various levels
(consisting of heads of judicial organs, judicial administrative
organs, civil affairs administrative organs at local levels)
A significant limit on judicial autonomy
No legal basis for this relationship, largely a policy matter
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Relationship with the Party (2)
(Internally: Party Committee)
Structure Every court has a Party Committee within.
Court president is generally the Party Secretary of the relevant court.
The Party Committee of the Court and its organization is subordinated to
the local Party Committee
Shenzhen Intermediate Court Party Committee Shenzhen Municipal
Party Committee.
Powers Partys leadership within the court.
Concerned with personnel (organization).
IdeologyThree Represents, Three Supremes
Policy (major initiatives, matters relating to social stability, politically
significant).
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Relationship with the Party (3)
(Externally: Political-Legal Committee)
PLC ():
Organization
All judicial organs in China and all judicial work in China are led by
the Political-legal Committee.
Central Political-legal Committee () is the sub-
committee of the CCP Central Committee.
Likewise, PLCs are established under all levels of local party
committees corresponding to local governments.
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Relationship with the Party (4)
(Externally: Political-Legal Committee)
PLC ()
Responsibilities
Implement Party policies
Supervise the implementation of law and Party policies by judicial
personnel Supervision
Since 1979, PLCs no longerexamine and approve cases, but can
provide general policy guidance to judicial work, nominate judicial
personnel and supervise the work of the courts.
Since 2006, there was a campaign called socialist rule of law
theory which stressed the leadership of the Party over the
countrys legal affairs.
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Relationship with the Legislature
General Description Courts are supervised by, and responsible to, PCs at same levels ( Article
128 of the Constitution, Article 17 of the Organic Law, Articles 5 andChapters 2, 6 of Law on Supervision of PCs 2006)
Personnel Control (Art.35, Organic Law; Art.11, JudgesLaw) PCs at various levels approve judicial appointments
Presidents () of the courts are appointed/ removed by PCs
All other judges appointed/ removed by the standing committees of PCs
Supervision (Law on Supervision of PCs 2006)
Annual Report Chief Judges (Presidents of the Court) make annual reports to the PCs
PC deputies can address inquiries to the courts
Individual Case Supervision: PCs can inquire into case decisions or rulings
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Relationship with the Government
Courts as Part of the Government Bureaucracy
The judicial system as an organ of the Party State
Reinforced by PLCs
Judicial ranks are associated with administrative ranks
Budgetary Control Funded by local governments
Supervised by local PLCs
Reform to introduce centralized funding (textbook p209)
Local Protection
Cases involving local SOEs
Cases involving major local private enterprises
Local government collect revenues from local enterprises
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Summary: Various Influences in Interplay
Supervision within the Court System
Higher courts supervise next lower courts (SPC reform: p188-89)
Some lower courts even request guidance from higher courts for early
prevention of the judgment being appealed or later revoked
Supervision by Judicial/Adjudicative Committees ()
In courts at all levels
Impact on personnel issues
Decide important () and difficult () cases.
Supervision outside the Court System
Pertaining institutions
Led, and more recently called guided, by the PLCs at corresponding levels.
Accountable to PCs at the locality which appoint and remove judges.
Supervision by upper level Procuratorates.
Invisible hands: local political and admin influences intertwined
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Judicial Independence: Constitutional Basis
Article 126: The people's courts exercise judicial power independently, inaccordance with the provisions of the law, and are not subject to interference by
any administrative organ, public organization or individuals.
Article 127: The Supreme People's Court is the highest judicial organ. The
Supreme People's Court supervises the administration of justice by the people'scourts at various local levels and by the special people's courts. People's courts
at higher levels supervise the administration of justice by those at lower levels.
Article 128: The Supreme People's Court is responsible to the National
People's Congress and its Standing Committee. Local people's courts at
various levels are responsible to the organs of state power which created them.
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Judicial Independence: China
Collective independence of the judiciary as a whole
o as the states adjudicating body exercising judicial power exclusively andindependently (Con, Art 126; Organic Law, Art 4)
Such independence is against interference by any administrative
organ, public organization or individual, but not by legislature and
political parties (Con, Art 126)
o
courts produced (judges appointed) and supervised by PCs, responsible to PCs (i.e.,no separation of powers): Con, Art 128; Organic Law, Art 17
o work of courts led and guided by PLCs at corresponding levels of local party
committee
o interference from local governments as sources of funding for local courts
Such independence is not extended to individual courts, nor to
individual judgeso higher courts supervise next lower courts (Con, Art 127)
o supervision of judges work by adjudicative committees (Organic Law, Art 11)
o supervision of lower-ranking judges work by senior judges: judgments not valid until
signed by president or chief judge of divisions who may not be members of collegiate
benches
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Judicial Independence: West
Functional independence against other branches of
government (i.e., legislative and executive branches)
Institutional independence by individual courts
Independent decision-making by individual judges
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Courts: Operation
Collegiate bench (): consisting of odd number ofmembers, usually three - Presiding judge ()+ judges (), OR
Presiding judge + judge + peoples juror (), OR
Presiding judge + peoples jurors
To hear most cases except simple and minor cases where the sole-judgebench () is applied.
Trial proceeding Inquisitorial in nature but more adversarial-oriented nowadays
Open trial except cases involving state secrets, privacy, etc.
Judgments Facts + laws,
Usually a few pages only, without in-depth legal analysis,
But lately moving towards incorporating more reasoning and analysis.
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Collegiate Bench (1)
Cases of first instance shall be tried by a collegial bench
composed of judges or a collegial bench composed of
judges and peoples jurors. Only simple civil cases, minor
criminal cases and cases otherwise provided for by law
may be tried by one judge alone.
The president of the court or the chief judge of a division
shall appoint one of the judges on the bench to act as the
presiding judge. (Article 10 of the Organic Law of PeoplesCourts, amended in 2006)
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Collegiate Bench (2)
SPC Several Provisions concerning Further Strengthening
the Functions of Collegial Panels (2010) Collegial panels are the basic judicial organizations in the peoples courts. All
members of a collegial panel shall equally participate in the hearings,
deliberations and judgments of cases, and perform their judicial functions
according to law. (Art 1)
A collegial panel shall be composed of judges (including deputy judges) orcomposed of judges (including deputy judges) and randomly selected
peoples jurors. Collegial panels with relatively fixed members shall maintain
regular exchange among the members. If peoples jurors participate in a
collegial panel, they shall be randomly selected from the list of peoples
jurors. (Art 2)
Except cases submitted to the Adjudicative/Judicial Committee for
discussion, a collegial panel shall make a judgment or ruling of a case on
which a unanimous opinion or a majority opinion of its members is reached
during case deliberations. (Art 7)
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Collegiate Bench (3) The presiding judge may apply to the President or the divisional chief judge for
a decision on organizing the relevant judicial personnel to conduct jointdiscussions of the following cases, in which the members of the collegial panel
shall participate:1. A major, difficult or complex case or a case of a new type;
2. A case where the members of the collegial panel dissent greatly in the fact finding or
the application of law;
3. A case where the collegial panels opinion may be inconsistent with the judgment or
ruling of a precedent case of the same type rendered by the court or the superior court;
4. A mass dispute case with intense complaints from the parties; and
5. Any other case, the discussion of which the President or the divisional chief judge
deems necessary at the request of the presiding judge.
Discussion opinions of the above-mentioned cases shall be references for the
collegial panel, and shall not affect the collegial panels rendering a judgment
or ruling in accordance with law. (Art 7)
The presidents, vice presidents, divisional chief judges and divisional deputy
chief judges of the peoples courts at all levels shall participate in collegial
panels to hear cases, and gradually increase the number of cases heard by
them. (Art 8)
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Adjudicative Committees (1)
Institutional frameworko Peoples courts at all levels shall set up adjudicative committees (ACs)
which shall implement the principle of democratic centralism. The task of
the AC shall be accumulation of judicial experience and to discuss
important or difficult cases and other issues relating to adjudication. The
presidents of courts shall preside over meetings of the ACs. (Article 11,
Organic Law of Peoples Courts)o All three procedural laws (civil, criminal, and administrative) have given
details to the functions of ACs:.
Rationaleo insufficient professional qualifications and standards of judges; more
qualified and experienced judges on ACs can offer assistance and exercisesupervision (i.e., quality control)
Problemso decision comes first, trial to follow; accountability unclear
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Adjudicative Committees (2)
Supporters/defenders in a minority (e.g., Zhu Suli)
arguing maintenance on grounds of reducingcorruption, enhancing judicial independence andresisting outside interference
Criticsfavoring abolishment on grounds of enhancing
judicial accountability, improving efficiency of case
handling, and reducing judicial corruption
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Adjudicative Committees (3)
Reforms: General directions -o narrow down scope of referred caseso rationalize procedures for reference to ACs
Reforms: Specific initiatives before 2010 - reform of the presiding judge system: individual judges and collegiate
bench given more power to decide cases without approval of division chief,
president, or AC reform under revised Criminal Procedure Law of 1996: Art 149 the
collegiate bench shall refer the case to the president of the court to decideto submit the case to AC for discussion and decision. The decisions of ACmust be implemented by the collegiate bench. (now Art 180, revised CPLof 2012)
reform under SPCs first Five-Year Reform Program (1999-2003):
collegiate bench has right to refer case to president to decide to submitcase to AC (para. 2 (20)), but without differentiating criminal and civilprocedures
reform under SPCs second Five-Year Reform Programme (2004-08): ACto hear directly major or difficult cases or those with general applicability;president or division chief to join AC; creation of separate ACs for civil andcriminal cases
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Adjudicative Committees (4) Reforms: Latest developments since 2010 -
SPC Implementing Opinion on the Reform and Improvement of the System of
Adjudicative Committees of Peoples Courts (2010) Stable rather than fluctuating memberships
President, VPs, division heads, special committee members: considered moreexperienced, qualified and politically reliable
Most members of AC are concurrently court Party Committee members, with powerto consider promotion of judges
Clarified types of cases to be referred
collegiate bench has major differences in reaching a decision; relevant legislation in unclear or there are difficult issues in the application of law;
results of case may have a major impact on society;
a new type of case that will set an example for future cases.
Clarified AC proceedings
who decides to refer: The collegial bench may submit the case to the president todecide whether to submit the case to AC (Art 11)
presidents preside over meetings of AC (Art 14) collegiate bench to prepare a full written report on the trial of the case which reviews
the facts and evidence (Art 12)
a written report required to be provided to AC members before meetings. (Art 12)
presiding judge to make a report to the AC meeting, to be supplemented by othermembers of the collegiate bench (Art 15)
AC decision to take form of resolution (Art 17) by majority vote (Art 16)
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Profile of Judges
Judicial quality is very unbalanced in China
Some are retired military assigned to courts (common in 1980s and
early 1990s)
East and Rich Areas
Most judges are required to have a postgraduate law degree.
Judges are more decently paid, and have better benefits (including housing,
medical subsidies, etc).
Judges in first-tier Chinese cities (i.e. Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou)
have more education and training opportunities abroad and hence, they are
more attuned to handling foreign-related disputes.
SZ and SH Intermediate Courts have a number of HKU MCL graduates.
West and Hinterland Most judges in the West and vast hinterland lack a formal legal education
Many judges are fresh law graduates recruited and appointed after graduation
Judges are ill-equipped in handling foreign-related disputes.
Concerns by HK-Mainland Regional Judicial Assistance Arrangements on Civil
and Commercial Matters.
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From Military Uniforms to Judges Outfits
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Judges Gowns
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Qualifications of Judges
Reform to improve the profile of judiciary Judges Law and other relating legislation promulgated to improve judicial quality
Structure of the judiciary and low salaries are major barriers.
Problems of the Chinese judicial infrastructure (including low salary) are embedded in its
surrounding political system.
Chapter 4 of Judges Law (passed in 1995, amended in 2001)
Undergraduates: 2 years experience; but 3 years experience if work forprovincial
HPCs or SPC.
Postgraduates: 1 year experience; but 2 years experience if work forprovincial
HPCs or SPC.
Court presidents and vice presidents are selected from judges who have more
experience (no illustration as to more experience, common loose-ends of most
Chinese laws, problems for implementation) .
After 2002, new judges must pass the National Judicial Examination
Famous as most difficult exam in China, passing rate at 6-7%.
Same situation in TW, Japan and South Korea.
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Court Reform: Overview
Court Reform by Organic Law of Peoples Courts Passed in 1954, amended in 1979 and 2007
Historically, weapon of the peoples democratic dictatorship
Merged into the public security organs in 1958, and re-established in 1979
Now defined as adjudicative organ () of the state
First-Five-year Reform Outline (1999-2004) Improved the quality of judges
Launch the national judicial exam
Second-Five-Year Reform Plan (2004-2008)
Ambitious towards professional courts: Not fewer than 100 goals set up
Mentioned centralized court appointment (in given areas), and centralizedfinancing of courts.
Third-Five-Year-Reform-Plan (2009-2013)
The new campaign of adjudication for the people (popular justice) launched in
2009
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Court Reform: Positive Progress (1)
Enhanced role, even if limited, in hearing rights-based
grievances (three types below) and increasingly
contested role of courts
o administrative litigation
o class actions
o discrimination claims filed under the Constitution
Reduced interference by Party and administrative
agencies in some localities (e.g., Shanghai)
o greater respect for rule of law by Party members andgovernment officials
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Court Reform: Positive Progress (2)
Enhanced independence and professionalism
o better qualifications of judges: higher degrees, better training, andintroduction of national unified judicial examination
o clearer rules for judges to follow in adjudicating through improved
quality of legislation and SPC interpretations
o recent attempts to turn courts into more dignified institutions
introducing judicial gowns and gavels
introducing lawyers gowns
o innovation and horizontal interaction among judges in local courts
to increase fairness in adjudication and develop professional
identities
Less judicial corruption in some localities
o better pay and social status
o stricter discipline and sanction
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Court Reform: Restrictiveness (1)
Reform largely technical and not designed to alter courts
power
New pressures from media reports and popular protests
Remaining interference in major and complex cases by
PLCs of Party and administrative agencies
o when judges are unsure how to integrate social effects with legal
effects of adjudication
o when judges are threatened to be held accountable for erroneousrulings
o when personnel control by Party and unsatisfactory terms of
service of judges still persist
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Court Reform: Restrictiveness (2)
Remaining judicial corruption
Courts are still under-funded
o funding still from budget of local administration, not from budget of
central government (despite of calls from public and SPCs plan for
reform - see textbook, p209)
Remaining difficulty in enforcing judgments
Remaining lack of authority, finality and certainty of courtjudgments
o possibility of re-opening cases through adjudicative supervision
(more in subsequent lectures)
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Judge Deng Case: Various Acts - Legal Bases
Collegiate bench and presiding judgeo Jurisdiction: collegiate bench can try cases of first instance except for
simple civil cases and minor criminal cases (Organic Law, Art.10)
ACs functions (Organic Law, Art.11)o to sum up judicial experience
o to discuss important or difficult cases (i.e., quality control of judicial workwithin same court)
o to discuss other issues relating to judicial work
Presidents acto arguably with legal basis
o who should decide whether to refer?: collegiate bench may submit a caseto president for him to decide whether to submit the case to AC (SPC 2010
Opinion, Art 7 and Art 11) ACs decision to seek High Courts instruction
o with legal basis: higher courts supervise lower courts (Constitution, Art.127;Organic Law, Art 17)
o but entailing lack of transparency and depriving parties of right to appeal
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Judge Deng Case: Various Acts - Legal Bases
High Courts support of judgmento with legal basis (same above -- Constitution, Art.127; Organic Law, Art 17)
PLCs reversal of judgment: controversial --o PLCs supervision: no formal legal basis, largely a policy matter
o how to supervise?: through providing general policy guidance, nominating
personnel, supervising work of courts
o whether reversal of judgment falling within the above scope?: should not
decide any specific cases for judges
LPCSC removal of Judge Deng: may be legitimate
depending on whether procedural requirements were
followed --o LPCSC at corresponding level to appoint and remove all judges other than
courts president (Organic Law, Art.35; Judges Law, Art.11)
o but such appointments and removals must be upon recommendation of
courts president (Judges Law, Art.11)
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