Court reforms over the past decade have helped achieve judicial
efficiency, including significant progress in the rulings in major,
difficult or controversial cases, the country's top judge said
recently.
Supreme People's Court (SPC) President Xiao Yang said the reform of judicial
committees, the highest decision-making bodies in the country's
judicial system, has greatly improved trial quality and
rulings.
Addressing a national working conference on court reforms, Xiao
said the decisions of these committees, comprising mainly court and
tribunal presidents, used to be taken at closed sessions with no
direct contact with either plaintiffs or defendants.
But the reforms have made judicial committee members, along with
other judges or panels, join the bench to hear or try the
cases.
"Each judge has to read the case document, voice his opinion and
directly question litigants," Xiao said.
"For difficult, complicated or socially important cases,
judicial committees have to hear the cases in person to better
understand the facts and reduce the chances of biased rulings."
SPC judicial committees have been divided into two groups, one
for criminal cases and the other for civil and administrative
cases, to improve efficiency and accuracy, he said.
Local high courts and immediate people's courts have formed
their own criminal, civil and administrative committees, too.
As part of the reforms, judicial committees have also used
secret ballots to arrive at a ruling.
More experienced judges have been named to the judicial
committees in contrast to the earlier practise of having only court
and tribunal presidents, Xiao said.
Renmin University of China's professor of criminal law Chen
Weidong has hailed the reforms as "the transfer from closed
sessions to trial participation in accordance with trial
characteristics".
"It's a fundamental necessity for judges to hear a trial before
taking a decision," he said.
"Chinese courts are becoming more professional and specialized,
with the formation of special judicial committees and excellent
judges who know how to deal with major cases," Chen said
The SPC introduced other important measures, such as review of
death penalties, retrial procedures, judicial enforcement, people's
jury system, judges' enrolment and management, guiding case
instruction and minors' trials.
In a related development, China Society of Judicial Studies was
set up yesterday, with SPC Vice-President Cao Jianming being named
as its first president.
Cao said the society will conduct special research on how to
optimize judiciary resources, fight corruption in and build an
independent and fair judicial system, protect people's basic rights
and ensure that every citizen enjoys equal chance to be part of
social development.
(China Daily November 26, 2007)