VI. Judicial System and Fair Administration of Justice
The people's court is the judicial organ in China and the people's procuratorate is the supervisory organ for law enforcement. The people's court and the people's procuratorate, in accordance with the Constitution, Organic Law of the People's Courts, Organic Law of the People's Procuratorates, Civil Procedure Law, Administrative Procedure Law and Criminal Procedure Law, independently exercise their adjudicative power and supervisory power, respectively, free from any interference of administrative organs, public organizations and individuals.
Judicial organs in China include the Supreme People's Court, local people's courts at different levels and special people's courts such as military courts. Local people's courts are classified into primary people's courts, intermediate people's courts and higher people's courts. As the highest judicial organ, the Supreme People's Court supervises the judicial work of all local people's courts and special people's courts. The people's court at a higher level supervises the judicial work of the people's court at the next-lower level.
China has established a sound judicial system, completed the adjudicative systems for civil, administrative and criminal cases, forming a modern judicial system in line with the requirements for building a socialist country under the rule of law, in a bid to safeguard judicial justice and social justice.
- The system of public trial. The people's court follows the principle of openness according to law and timely openness in adjudication of cases. Some civil cases, such as divorce cases or cases involving commercial secrets, may be heard in private sessions if the parties concerned so request. Except for cases involving state secrets, individual privacy and minors, all other cases are heard and decided by the people's court in an open manner. A public notice is issued about a forthcoming public trial, allowing citizens and the media to observe the trial. The people's court often invites deputies to the people's congresses and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and their local branches to observe the trial process. In the course of adjudication of a case, evidences are given, cross-examination is carried out, and the trial is conducted in an open way. All effective information relating to the protection of the rights of the parties concerned, such as the filing of the case, its trial and enforcement of judgment, is publicized promptly and completely within the time frame provided by the law.
- The system of collegiate panels. When a people's court hears and decides a case of first instance, unless it is a simple civil case, or a minor criminal case or other cases that may use the summary procedure as provided by the law and in which case a single judicial officer will hear and decide the case, the case will be heard and decided by a collegiate panel composed of several judicial officers or by a collegiate panel composed of judicial officers and people's assessors. A collegiate panel of judicial officers is formed when adjudicating cases on appeal or protested cases. The number of a collegiate panel must be an odd number.
- The system of people's assessors. To guarantee all citizens' lawful right to participate in trials and promote justice, except for cases suitable for summary procedure or cases provided otherwise by the law, all civil, administrative and criminal cases, including all cases of first instance in which the defendant in a criminal case, the plaintiff or defendant in a civil case or the plaintiff in an administrative case, has requested to have people's assessors participate in the trial, will be heard and decided by a collegiate panel composed of people's assessors and judges. People's assessors hear and decide cases as members of the collegiate panel in accordance with provisions of the law. They are entitled to the same rights and shoulder the same duties as other members of the collegiate panel, and independently exercise their voting right, together with other members of the collegiate panel, when it comes to the confirmation of evidence and application of law. However, they cannot serve as chief judges.
- The system of defense. In order to guarantee the human rights of criminal suspects and defendants, and ensure the fairness of the criminal proceedings, criminal suspects and defendants have the right to defense according to law and the people's court has the obligation to ensure that all defendants are entitled to defense. Criminal suspects and defendants may defend themselves or ask one or two people to serve as their counsels. Based on facts and the law, the counsels provide the court with their own materials and give their views. They may claim that the criminal suspect or the defendant is not guilty, or has committed a lighter crime than he/she is accused of, or ask the court to lessen or relieve his/her criminal liabilities in a bid to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the criminal suspect or the defendant.
- The system of agent ad litem. In a civil or administrative procedure, if a person has no capacity for an act of procedure, his/her guardian will undertake the litigation as the legal representative. If he/she has more than one guardian and they all refuse to serve as his/her legal representative, the people's court will designate one of them as his/her legal representative in the case. The party to the lawsuit or his/her legal representative may ask one or two persons to serve as agent ad litem on his/her behalf. If it is a criminal procedure, the victim and his/her legal representative or close relative in the case of a public prosecution, the voluntary prosecutor and his/her legal representative in the case of a private prosecution, the party concerned in incidental civil action and his/her legal representative, are all entitled to entrust someone as agent ad litem. Attorneys, close relatives of the person concerned, people recommended by relevant organizations or their employers, or any citizen approved by the people's court can serve as agent ad litem for others. The agent ad litem takes part in the litigation on behalf of the person concerned to materialize and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the person concerned.
- The system of challenge. Any party concerned in a case is entitled to apply to the court to remove anyone from the adjudication personnel whom he/she believes has an interest in the case or is otherwise related to the party concerned in the case and may endanger the defendant's right to a fair trial. If any of the adjudication personnel is a party concerned in the case, a close relative of a litigating party, or when he/she believes he/she has an interest in the case, he/she must withdraw from the case.