The Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Wednesday issued a judicial
explanation on independent trial of lawsuits against government,
which mainly involves cases brought by individuals to get rid of
random meddling in the trial of such cases by local
authorities.
SPC Vice President Xi Xiaoming said litigants who sued
government bodies are often in a feeble and powerless position
compared with government departments. This is because the current
law ruled "administration lawsuits should be tried by regional
courts where defendants live".
"Improper interference by some local administration organs
occurred frequently in China, which made local, especially
grassroots, courts hard to exercise independently and fairly their
legal authority, thus affect the credibility of justice," Xi
said.
"In reality, manpower, property, estate or other possessions of
local courts all depend on same-level local governments. Courts
could easily harbor worries while hearing administrative cases
suing governments," he said.
The explanation, to take effect on Feb. 1, is to safeguard court
authority, guarantee public legal interests and maintain social
justice, he said.
From 2003 to 2007, more than 470,000 lawsuits against government
bodies were tried in courts of the first instance. Last year alone
saw more than 100,000 such cases, statistics showed.
Xi said many useful explorations had been made by local courts
to find out effective measures, thus eliminating unnecessary
official interference.
Among them, "courts must be allowed to try lawsuits against
government bodies outside the area of the government body's
authority" was a proved effective way.
The judicial explanation then legitimated the practice which
could "alleviate pressures faced by local courts and judges and
remove any direct official disturbance", Xi said.
"Trying cases in other areas could finally cure the headache of
hearing cases involving government bodies at a relatively small
cost," he added.
The explanation made clear that cases with defendants being
governments above the county level, complicated cases with serious
social impacts, or involving foreigners or regions such as Hong
Kong, Macao and Taiwan, should be dealt with by intermediate
courts.
SPC President Xiao Yang said last year at the fifth national
meeting on trials of lawsuits against governments, "If lawsuits
against government bodies are not tried fairly, the legitimate
rights of litigants are not protected."
"Disputes between the public and government bodies, if not
settled properly, will only lead to public grievances and affect
social harmony and stability," Xiao said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2008)