SPP Provisions on Case Guidance Work 2015

On the Release of the "Supreme People's Procuratorate Provisions on Case Guidance Work"

Gao Jian Fa Yan Zi [2015] No.12

People's procuratorates of all provinces, autonomous regions and directly governed municipalities; military procuratorates and the people's procuratorate for the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:

The "Supreme People's Procuratorate Provisions on Case Guidance Work" was revised by the 44th meeting of the 12th prosecution committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on December 9, 2015, and is hereby released to you to be combined with actual experiences and earnestly implemented.

Supreme People's Procuratorate

12/30/2015

Supreme People's Procuratorate Provisions on Case Guidance Work

(Passed by the 40th meeting of the eleventh procuratorial committee of the Supreme People's Court on July 29, 2010; Revised by the 44th meeting of the 12th procuratorial committee on December 9, 2015.)

Article 1: These Provisions are formulated so as to strengthen and standardize procuratorial organs' case guidance work, to fully bring into play guiding cases's function in standardizing case management work, to promote the procuratorial organs' strict and just judiciary, to ensure the uniform and correct implementation of laws, and to consolidate the actual conditions of procuratorial work.

Article 2: Guiding cases of procuratorate organs are uniformly released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate. Guiding cases shall meet the following requirements:

(1) The resolution of the case has already become legally effective;

(2) The handling of the case has resulted in positive legal or social impact;

(3) The case provides meaningful guidance to similar cases in areas such as the process of determination of fact, collection of evidence, application of law, grasp of policies.

Article 3: In referencing a guiding case, the People's Procuratorates may quote a relevant guiding case as a type of evidence that explains and explicates the law, but may not use such a reference as a substitute for references to laws or legal interpretations as direct legal basis for deciding the outcome of a case.

Article 4: Procuratorial guiding cases should normally be composed of a title, keywords, basic case circumstances, procedural history, main points, legal analysis, related laws and policies, and so forth.

When the case is issued, appropriate adjustments may be made to the content listed above on the basis of the characteristics of different guiding cases.

Article 5: The Supreme People's Procuratorate establishes a case Guidance Work Committee.

The Case Guidance Work Committee is composed of Supreme People's Procuratorate deputy chief procurators for different areas, fulltime members of the procuratorial committee, each operational department head and some legal experts.

Article 6: The Case Guidance Work Committee establishes a working body, which, under the guidance of the Case Guidance Work Committee, conducts the collection and the selection of candidate guiding cases and other daily affairs.

The working body for the Case Guidance Work Committee is established within the Supreme People's Procuratorate Legal Policy Research Office.

Article 7: The various operational units of the Supreme People's Procuratorate are in charge of the work on the collection, examination, and recommendation of candidate guiding cases related to their respective operational work.

The provincial people's procuratorates are in charge of work on the collection, examination, and recommendation of prospective guiding cases conducted by the all levels of people's procuratorate within their respective jurisdictions.

Each operational department of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and all levels of local people's procuratorates shall designate specific personnel to be in charge of the work relevant to case guidance.

Article 8: Prospective guiding cases recommended by the various operational units of the Supreme People's Procuratorate shall be approved by the Deputy Procurators-Generals.

The candidate guiding cases recommended to the Supreme People's Procuratorate by provincial people's procuratorates shall be approved by their respective procurators-general or deliberated and decided by their respective procuratorial committees.

Article 9: The working bodies for the Case Guidance Work Committee shall broadly explore channels for collecting cases. Based on the need of case guidance work, types of cases for prioritized collection may be released to the various operational units of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and to the provincial people's procuratorates.

Article 10: For cases that they determine meet the requirements of Article 2 of these Provisions, delegates to the people's congresses, members of the CPPCC's, people's supervisors, expert consultation committee members and the people of all circles can suggest that the people's procuratorates handling those cases recommend them to the working bodies of the Case Guidance Work Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate according to relevant procedures.

Article 11: Operational departments of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and provincial level people's procuratorates that are recommending cases shall submit the following materials:

(1) the "Guiding Case Recommendation Form";

(2) The case text and explanatory materials written in accordance with rules;

(3) Relevant legal documents.

The materials described above are to be sent together as paper and digital media.

Article 12: After researching the collected cases, the working bodies of the Case Guidance Work Committee distribute those that they deem qualified for candidate guiding cases to relevant operational units and to the expert members of the Case Guidance Work Committee to solicit their opinions. When necessary, they can solicit the opinions of other relevant units, experts, or scholars or conduct expert feasibility demonstration meetings (专家论证会).

Article 13: Based on the situation of the solicitation of opinions, the working bodies of the Case Guidance Work Committee put forward opinions on candidate guiding cases and submit to the Case Guidance Work Committee for discussion.

Article 14: The Case Guidance Work Committee implements a principle of democratic centralism in carrying out collective discussion of selected guiding cases. Where a majority of its member determine that [a case] can be released as a guiding case, the Case Guidance Committee reports it to the Procurator-General for approval and submits to the Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate for deliberation.

Article 15: The guiding cases deliberated and passed by the Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate shall be published on the Gazette of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Procuratorate Daily, and the website of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Article 16: The Supreme People's Procuratorate shall strengthen communication with relevant organs when launching case guidance work. When necessary, it may discuss jointly releasing guiding cases with relevant organs.

Article 17: Where one of the following circumstances applies to a guiding case, the Supreme People's Procuratorate shall declares it ineffective in a timely manner and shall publish on the Gazette of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Procuratorate Daily, and the website of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

(1) The laws or judicial interpretations cited by the case are repealed;

(2) It conflicts with new laws or judicial interpretations;

(3) It conflicts with new guiding cases released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate;

(4) Other circumstances where it should be declared ineffective.

During the handling of cases, where people's procuratorates discover that relevant guiding cases meet the circumstances mandating the declaration of inefficacy pursuant to the previous paragraph, they shall report to the working bodies of the Case Guidance Work Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate level by level.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate's declaration of the inefficacy of a case shall be deliberated and decided by the Procuratorial Committee.

Article 18: The Supreme People's Procuratorate strengthens the compilation work of guiding cases and establishes guiding cases databases, to provide convenience to all levels of people's procuratorates and the public in their searching, queries, and application of guiding cases.

Article 19: All levels of people's procuratorates shall strengthen the education and training on guiding cases and include guiding cases into training curricula, so as to elevate the accuracy and normativity of the application of guiding cases.

Article 20: These provisions are interpreted by the Supreme People's Procuratorate and take effect on the date of their release. The "Supreme People's Procuratorate Provisions on Case Guidance Work" (Gao Jian Fa Yan Zi (2010) No. 3) are simultaneously revoked.