The Supreme People's Court Provisions on People's Courts Release of Judgments on the Internet

The Supreme People's Court Provisions on People's Courts Release of Judgments on the Internet

Legal Interpretation [2013] No. 26

　　《The Supreme People's Court Provisions on People's Courts' Release of Judgments on the Internet》was passed by the 1595th meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People's Court on November 13, 2013, and takes effect on January 1, 2014.

Supreme People's Court

November 21, 2013

　　The Supreme People's Court Provisions on People's Courts Release of Judgments on the Internet

(Passed at the 1595th meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's November 13, 2013)

The follow Provisions are formulated in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Law of the PRC, the Civil Procedure Law of the PRC, the Administrative Procedure Law of the the PRC and relevant provisions, taken together with the actual work conditions in the people's courts, to implement the principle of disclosing judgments, to standardize efforts of the people's courts to release judgments online, to advance judicial fairness and increase judicial credibility.

Article 1: People's Court's release of judgment documents on the internet shall follow the principles of lawfulness, timeliness, standardization and truth.

Article 2: The Supreme People's Court established the Judicial Opinions of China Network for unified release of effective judgments from all levels of people's courts.

People's courts at all levels are responsible for the quality of the judgment documents they release on the China Judicial Opinions Network.

Article 3: People's courts at all levels shall designate a special organization responsible for managing the internet release of judgment documents. This organization performs the following duties:

(1) organizes, uploads judgment documents;

(2) Coordinates the relevant departments to handle typos, improper technical handling of a judgment document or other such problems it discovers.

（3）Other related guidance, supervision or evaluation work.

Article 4: The judgment documents of people's courts shall be released on the internet, but with an exception in any of the following circumstances:

(1) those touching upon state secrets or personal privacy;

（2) those involving juvenile violations or crimes;

（3）those cases concluded by mediation；

（4）Others not suited for release on the internet.

Article 5: People's Court shall inform the parties of the scope of internet release of judgment documents in the case acceptance notice, and use means such as government websites, electronic touch screens, litigation guides to inform the public of the regulations related to the people's courts' release of judgment documents on the internet.

Article 6: When the people's courts release judgment documents on the internet, real information about the parties such as their names or titles shall be retained, but symbol substitution measures must be employed for the for the following parties' and participants' names to carry out anonymous handling:

(1) parties and their legally-designated representatives in marriage and family cases, or inheritance disputes;

（2）Victims and their legally-designated representatives, witnesses and expert evaluators in criminal cases.

（3）Defendants sentenced to three years or less imprisonment, or excused from criminal punishment, and who are not repeat or habitual offenders.

Article 7: When people's courts release judgment documents on the internet, they shall delete the following information:

（1）The personal information of real persons such as their home address , communication methods, identification number, bank account numbers or health status .

（2）Information related to minors；

（3）Bank account numbers of legal persons and other organizations；

（4）Commercial secrets；

（5）Other content not suitable for disclosure.

Article 8: The presiding judge or specialized personnel appointed by the people's court shall complete technical handling of a judgment document, in accordance with articles 6 and 7 of these provisions, within 7 days of the judgment taking effect, and submit it to that court's special institution for releasing judgment documents on the internet to release it on the China Judgment Opinion Network.

Article 9: Where judges hearing a case alone or collegial panels feel that a judgment document has a circumstance making it inappropriate for release on the internet as provided in article 4(4) of these Provisions, they shall submit a written opinion and reasoning, and the department's responsible, after review, will report to the vice-president in charge for validation.

Article 10: Except for those technically processed in accordance with requirements of these Provisions, judgment documents released on the internet shall be consistent with the judgment documents delivered to the parties

Where people's courts make corrections to the judgment documents delivered to the parties, they shall promptly release the correction ruling on the internet.

Article 11: Judgment documents released on the internet by the people's courts must not be revised or modified, except where network transmission obstacles lead to discrepancies; where withdrawal is truly necessary for statutory or other special reasons, the specialized institution for releasing judgment documents on the internet of a people's court at the high court level or higher shall review and make a decision, and handle the withdrawal, registration and recording procedures on China Judgment Opinion Network.

Article 12: The China Judgment Opinion Network shall provide easily operated systems for searching and reading, facilitating the public's searching and reading of judgment documents.

Article 13: The Supreme People's Court is responsible for supervising and guiding all levels of local people's courts' efforts to release judgment documents on the internet.

High People's Courts are responsible for organizing, guiding, supervising and inspecting all levels of people's courts within their jurisdictional region's efforts to release judgment documents on the internet.

Article 14: Each high people's court may, in the course of carrying out these Provisions, may combine their actual work experiences to formulate specific implementation rules. The schedule of central western district basic level people's courts release of judgment documents on the internet is decided by the high people's courts, and reported to the Supreme People's Court for recording.

Article 15: These Provisions Take effect on January 1, 2014. The Supreme Peoples Courts' November 11, 2010 "Provisions on the Release of Judgment Documents on the Internet" (Legal Interpretation (2010) No. 48) is at the same time abolished. Where judicial interpretations and normative documents previously released by the Supreme People's Court are not consistent with these Provisions, these Provisions are controlling.

Released by the secretary of the Supreme People's Court General Office.

Issues November 22, 2013