Courts in China pledged to beef up research on hot issues related to the international implementation of the rule of law while improving efficiency and quality when handling foreign-related cases, which have seen rapid growth in recent years, according to a report on foreign-related trials that was submitted for review to the the latest session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC). “We should make and optimize judicial interpretations and supplement rules concerning extra-territorial application of Chinese laws, with more research on cutting-edge issues of international laws,” Zhou Qiang, President of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), said when introducing the report to lawmakers. While calling for innovative measures to give easier access to the delivery of verdicts and foreign law ascertainment, he also required courts nationwide to apply more advanced technologies, including big data, blockchain and artificial intelligence, in foreign-related case handling to uphold justice in the digital sphere.
A system of exchanging personnel with foreign law backgrounds among legislative bodies, law enforcement departments, judicial authorities, academies and legal service institutions should also be promoted, with greater efforts in educating international interdisciplinary talent, Zhou said. “We’ve actively cooperated in the pursuit of fugitives and stolen goods abroad, issuing judicial interpretations to improve procedures for confiscating illegal gains in cases where suspects or defendants flee or die, so that corrupt people had nowhere to escape and illicit gains nowhere to be hidden,” Zhou said. “To strengthen the protection of human rights, the handling of foreign-related criminal cases has been regulated, and foreign defendants have been offered lawyers to help with defense,” he said.
With offenses involving foreigners effectively handled, Chinese courts have also stepped up efforts in efficiently dealing with foreign-related civil and maritime disputes in the past 10 years, according to the report. “Those civil trials played a big role in building a sound business environment and a higher-level open economy, and were highly significant for advancing the modernization of the country’s governance system and capacity,” Zhou said. Chinese courts concluded about 384,000 cases involving overseas litigants from 2013 to June. The number of civil foreign-related disputes went up to 27,300 last year from 14,800 in 2013.
Of the civil cases, new categories – such as those regarding cross-border e-commerce, bankruptcy, and mergers and acquisitions, as well as financial derivatives investment and China-Europe Railway Express freight waybills – have been frequently emerging, and the involved litigants came from more than 100 countries and regions, the China Daily reports.
