Contents
1. Strengthening the Trial Functions of FHMT-related Cases, and Enhancing the Ability to Serve the New Pattern of Opening-up
1.1 Main characteristics and development trends reflected in trials of FHMT-related commercial cases.
1.1.1 Yearly increasing of FHMT-related commercial cases and reflecting the increasing degree of opening-up.
1.1.2 Ranking first of the number of Hong Kong-related cases accepted by the Qianhai Court in China and constantly increasing the ability of judicial services and Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation
1.1.3 Significantly increasing of the number of cases involving the countries along the “Belt and Road” and reflecting Shenzhen’s gradual implementation of its national strategy for opening-up.
1.1.4. Relatively concentrating of cause of actions of FHMT-related commercial cases and gradually presenting a trend of new types and diversification.
1.1.5. Significantly increasing of the number of contractual jurisdiction and reflecting the significant improvement of judicial credibility.
1.2 Adhering to the protection of the rule of law and creating a stable, fair, transparent predictable and legalized business environment
1.2.1 Always adhering to the international common judicial philosophy and fully strengthening alignment with international economic and trade rules.
1.2.2 Fully playing the role of judicial protection and creating an open and inclusive investment and trade environment.
1.2.3 Strengthening the leading function of judicial demonstration and responding to the expected judicial demand for commercial activities at home and abroad.
1.3 Implementing trial brand strategies and building a comprehensive, reliable and first-rate judicial quality
1.3.1 Specialization of case trial.
1.3.2 The unification of t judicial criteria.
1.3.3 The standardization of trial procedures.
2. Building a Fair, Efficient, Convenient and Authoritative Mechanism for FHMT-related Commercial Trials and Creating a “Qianhai Brand” with High Judicial Credibility
2.1 Scientifically setting litigation procedures and effectively solving litigation efficiency issues commonly seizing attention of commercial subjects at home and abroad
2.1.1 Establishing introduction procedures for dispute resolutions compatible with the complexity of cases and ensuring efficient resolution of foreign-related cases.
2.1.2 Establishing a scientific and efficient service mechanism of foreign-related commercial cases and making efforts to solve the difficulties in serving foreign-related cases.
2.1.3 Improving the trial-oriented litigation mechanism and equally protecting the substantive and procedural rights of parties at home and abroad.
2.2 Establishing a systematic safeguard mechanism for the ascertainment and application of foreign law and ensuring the right of commercial entities at home and abroad to choose the applicable law
2.2.1 Establishing a comprehensive and full guideline for the identification of Hong Kong-related cases and maximising the application of foreign laws.
2.2.2 Establishing a comprehensive system of the ascertainment of foreign laws and removing obstacles to the ascertainment in the application of foreign laws.
2.2.3 Establishing a sound foreign law application system and ensuring the correct ascertainment and application of foreign laws.
2.2.4 Establishing a national research base for ascertainment of foreign law and creating “Qianhai Business Cards” for the ascertainment and application of foreign laws.
2.3 Building a litigation system of international commercial integrity and promoting the prosperity and development of international trade
2.3.1 Improving the litigation cost burden mechanism and counsel fee transfer mechanism and guiding the reasonable resolution of international commercial disputes.
2.3.2 Strengthening the punishments imposed on dishonest people in foreign-related cases to demonstrate China’s judicial authority.
2.3.3 Advocating lawyers to faithfully participate in foreign-related litigations and jointly building a honest, open, inclusive and legalized environment
3. Deepening the Comprehensive Supplementary Reform of the Judicial Systems and Establishing a Judicial Mechanism Required for the New Pattern of Comprehensive Opening-up
3.1 Maintaining the integrity and comprehensiveness of the reform and building an overall framework for the comprehensive supplementary reform of judicial systems
3.2 Maintaining the harmony and synergy of the reform and stimulating internal impetus for reform to the utmost extent
3.3 Maintaining the precision and normativity of reforms and targeting the key phases of judicial reforms
4. Insisting on the Philosophy of Working Together to Build and Govern, to Build an Alternative Resolution Mechanism and Platform for International Commercial Affairs of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area
4.1 Insisting on internalisation so as to provide open and inclusive judicial services for commercial subjects at home and abroad
4.2 Insisting on marketisation, serving and promoting efficient dispute resolution by applying the principles of market economy
4.3 Insisting on socialisation and improving the overall efficiency of dispute resolution by integrating all resources
4.4 Insisting on specialisation and improving the professional recognition and efficiency of commercial mediation
4.5 Insisting on informatisation and making the commercial mediation more efficient and convenient through modern technologies
5. Promoting the Construction of an Internationalised, Modernised, First-class Court and Effectively Enhancing International and Inter-regional Judicial Credibility
5.1 Promoting the normalisation, specialisation and professionalisation of the judicial team with the goal of building an elite judicial team
5.1.1 Taking the judge as the core to build a new type of trial team.
5.1.2 Systematically upgrading the cultivation mechanism for elite judges through high-standard selection and high-quality training.
5.1.3 Establishing a people’s assessor of Hong Kong system and Hong Kong mediator system on the basis of the close cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
5.2 Taking the construction of intelligent courts as a guide to modernise the trial system and trial capabilities
5.2.1 Accelerating the establishment of networked courts with the goal of efficient and convenient judicial demand.
5.2.2 Promoting judicial fairness through judicial publicity and accelerating the establishment of transparent courts.
5.2.3 Accelerating the establishment of intelligent courts based on the intelligent development and application of legal data.
5.3 Expanding the multi-channel, multi-form and specialisation of the external communication mechanism and building a demonstration area for the socialist rule of law.
5.3.1 Establishing an international judicial information communication and cooperation mechanism.
5.3.2 Creating an international Think Tank.
5.3.3 Establishing an international communication platform -- “Qianhai Intelligent Legal Forum”.
Preface
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in the face of the profound adjustment of the world economic structure, the Party Central Committee, with General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core, has made major strategic arrangements to promote the formation of a new pattern of comprehensive opening-up. With the continued expansion of China’s opening to the outside world, commercial transactions of foreign, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan-related are frequent and the number of related cases is increasing. Fair and efficient hear of all kinds of FHMT-related cases will not only help create an international, legal, and market-based business environment, but will also be more conducive to demonstrating the achievements of China’s legal construction, enhance the credibility of international justice, help serve and safeguard the national “Belt and Road” initiative and thus promote a new pattern of comprehensive opening up with positive significance.
Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court is a comprehensive judicial reform model court that the Supreme People’s Court has explicitly requested to build, and will focus on FHMT-related cases in the first instance under the jurisdiction of other grass-roots courts in Shenzhen municipal district. In the three years since its establishment, the Qianhai Court has insisted that fair and efficient performance of trial functions be its core, that building a first-class international court be its goal, that servicing and guaranteeing the nation’s overall development be its foundation, and that meeting the multivariate judicial needs of parties inside and outside the domain be its foothold. The Qianhai Court has been resolute in its efforts to innovate and has striven to create a business environment ruled by law that is open and inclusive, equal and fair and mutually beneficial.
Adhering to the concept of international common justice, the Qianhai Court is committed to promoting the judicial development of FHMT-related cases to a higher level. The Qianhai Court has earnestly raised its international vision, firmly established judicial concepts such as legal guarantee, equal protection, autonomy of will, honesty, trustworthiness and fair competition, and fully respected international rules and practices. It tries to learn from and absorb the advanced ideas and adjudication methods in commercial trials of other countries and regions, unify the scales of adjudication, and clarify the rules of adjudication so as to protect the legitimate rights and interests of parties inside and outside the domain, and effectively create a stable, fair, transparent and predictable international legal environment.
The Qianhai Court establishes a fair, efficient and authoritative judicial system for FHMT-related commercial cases and strives to build a “Qianhai Brand” with high international judicial credibility. The Qianhai Court has established the most systematic mechanism for the identification and application of extraterritorial laws in China and formed the professional mechanism of “elite judge + extraterritorial law expert + people’s assessors of Hong Kong”. At the same time, the Qianhai Court establishes a trial mechanism to promote and guarantee the cooperation of litigants, implements an efficient delivery mechanism, improves the pleading system and the pre-court conference system, and establishes an evidence disclosure system, a lawyer investigation order system and an honest litigation mechanism to prevent litigants from abusing litigation rights. All of these measures comprehensively enhance the trial efficiency of foreign-related commercial cases involving Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The Qianhai Court follows the principle of wide consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, establishes a dispute resolution mechanism with the characteristics of internationalisation, marketisation, specialisation, socialisation and informatisation, sets up the “Belt and Road” international commercial dispute resolution center, and strives to establish a commercial dispute settlement centre. Through a series of reforms, the efficiency of FHMT-related commercial cases heard by Qianhai Courts has been greatly increased, and the number of cases under the contractual jurisdiction has increased significantly. This fully reflects the effectiveness of trials heard by the Qianhai Court on FHMT-related commercial cases.
By way of the White Paper on FHMT-related cases, the Qianhai Court has comprehensively summarised and demonstrated its efforts on strengthening the judicial function of FHMT-related cases, promoting the reform of the trial mechanism of f FHMT-related cases, and enhancing the credibility of the international and inter-regional judicial system in the past three years. It is hoped that the White Paper on FHMT-related cases can provide a visual path for the public at home and abroad who are concerned about the trial work of FHMT-related cases in the Qianhai Court, and strengthen the confidence of both domestic and foreign commercial entities in the construction of the rule of law of the Qianhai Court and the optimisation of the business environment. It is also hoped that the White Paper can sum up beneficial experiences for the Qianhai Court to speed up the construction of an international court and serve the country’s new pattern of comprehensive opening up to the outside world, and accumulate sustainable development forces.
1. Strengthening the Trial Functions of FHMT-related Cases, and Enhancing the Ability to Serve the New Pattern of Opening-up
1.1 Main characteristics and development trends reflected in trials of FHMT-related commercial cases.
The Qianhai Court began accepting cases on February 2, 2015. As of April 30, 2018, the Qianhai Court has handled a total of 11,699 civil and commercial cases, among which, there were 4,272 foreign, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-related business cases (hereinafter referred to as “FHMT-related Cases”), accounting for 36.53% of the total number of cases received, and a total of 3,005 of four kinds of commercial cases were concluded. Among the FHMT-related Cases, there were 3,100 Hong Kong-related commercial cases, accounting for 72.53%; 53 Macao-related commercial cases, accounting for 1.24%; 435 Taiwan-related commercial cases, accounting for 10.18%; 686 foreign-related commercial cases, accounting for 16.05%.
1.1.1 Yearly Increasing of FHMT-related commercial cases and reflecting the increasing degree of opening-up. The Qianhai Court accepted 611 commercial cases in 2015, 1583 in 2016, 1600 in 2017, and 480 in January-April 2018. The FHMT-related Cases have been on an upward trend year by year. In particular, the number of FHMT-related Cases heard in 2016 has increased by 159% compared with that in 2015, among which the target amount involved has increased by 302%, reflecting the deepening of the reform and opening up in Shenzhen as well as the continued vitality of the export-oriented economy. This is especially true in regards to the innovation of the government management model in the Qianhai Free Trade Zone, the promotion of the reform of the negative list system of investment, and the development of the new business model. All are factors that promote the increase of FHMT-related commercial disputes. In addition, the sustained slowdown of global economic growth in 2015 and 2016, the negative growth in international trade, and the fierce turmoil in the global financial market have led to the inability of some enterprises to perform their obligations in accordance with the contract, which has led to increased disputes.
1.1.2 Ranking first of the number of Hong Kong-related cases accepted by the Qianhai Court in China and constantly increasing the ability of judicial services and Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation. From February 2015 to April 2018, the Qianhai Court accepted a total of 3,100 Hong Kong-related commercial cases, accounting for 72.53% of the total number of the FHMT-related Cases.
First, cases of Hong Kong-related enterprises have grown rapidly. Shenzhen makes full use of the advantages of adjoining Hong Kong and takes Zhuhai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Cooperation Zone as a platform to promote the reform of the investment management system for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and to continuously strengthen the industrial cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. As of the end of 2016, there were 4,223 Hong Kong-backed enterprises registered in the Qianhai Cooperation Zone, with an added value of 39.261 billion yuan. In 2016, the number of Hong Kong-related cases heard in Qiangai Court was 1,211, an increase of 164.98% compared with that in 2015, which fully reflects the deepening of Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation and the continuous deepening of the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area .
Second, cases where Hong Kong law is applied are increased. According to The Investigation Report on the Application of Hong Kong Law in the Hong Kong Related Qianhai Contracts Report made by National Bureau of Statistics Shenzhen investigation team, about 76.5% of the enterprises are willing to sign contracts applicable to Hong Kong with the Hong Kong-invested enterprises registered in the Qianhai Cooperation Zone. The Qianhai Court fully respects the parties’ right to choose the applicable law and applies international conventions and international practices in accordance with the law to equally protect the legal rights of all parties in accordance with the law. The situations that the parties involved in the Hong Kong-related cases chose the Application of Hong Kong Law increased. As of April 2018, there have been 32 cases in which the parties chose the Application of Hong Kong Law, of these, 30 cases in which the Application of Hong Kong Law was finally confirmed.
1.1.3 Significantly increasing of the number of cases involving the countries along the “Belt and Road” and reflecting Shenzhen’s gradual implementation of its national strategy for opening-up.
There were 686 commercial cases accepted by the Qianhai Court in more than 30 countries and regions including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Korea, Germany, UK, France, Russia, Pakistan, Singapore, Hungary, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Iran, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Philippines, Palestine, Nigeria, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Belize, British Virgin Islands and so on, accounting for 16.05% of the total number of cases. In addition to the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea and other foreign countries that have a large number of contacts with China’s international trade, cases involving countries along the “Belt and Road”have increased year by year, mainly in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa, which fully reflects the increasingly close economic and trade exchanges between Shenzhen and the countries and regions along the Belt and Road. It also reflects Shenzhen’s achievements in deepening reform, innovation and opening-up, and highlights Shenzhen’s strong vitality as a frontier for China’s reform and opening-up.
1.1.4. Relatively concentrating of cause of actions of FHMT-related commercial cases and gradually presenting a trend of new types and diversification.
FHMT-related commercial cases heard by the Qianhai Court involved 165 causes of actions and the types of cases were relatively concentrated. Among them, there were 2,698 main types of cases, including private lending disputes, financial disputes, corporate disputes, and sales and contract disputes, accounting for 63.12% of the total number of FHMT-related cases. In addition to traditional commercial disputes, the number of new types of disputes has increased year by year. The types of cases involve a wide range of industries covering the leading industries promoted by Shenzhen, such as financial industry, technology innovation, and information services.
First, the large proportion of financial commercial cases reflects Shenzhen’s strict implementation of the country’s requirements for advancing the opening-up of the financial industry. According to statistics, as of June 2017, there were a total of 55,922 accumulative registered financial companies in the Qianhai Cooperation Zone in Shenzhen, including 213 licensed financial institutions, which became the largest gathering place for new financial and financial-like institutions in the country. From February 2015 to April 2018, the Qianhai Court accepted a total of 304 financial and commercial disputes over FHMT-related affairs, accounting for 7.11% of the total number of FHMT-related cases.
Second, new types of disputes over financing disputes between non-financial institutions, such as financial leasing and commercial factoring, have increased significantly. From February 2015 to April 2018, a total of 43 financial leasing disputes over FHMT-related affairs, and 13 factoring contract disputes and stock allocation disputes over FHMT-related affairs were handled. As a new type of financial industry that is most closely integrated with the real economy, the financial leasing industry has been developing rapidly under the stimulation of a series of innovation policies in Shenzhen. According to statistics, Shenzhen’s commercial factoring and financial leasing business ranked first and third in China, respectively. Among them, there are more than 3,000 commercial factoring institutions, including: 2,961 commercial banking agencies, accounting for two-thirds of the total number of China, 341 financial leasing companies, accounting for 13.7% of the total number of China as well as maintaining the fastest growth rate in the country. The emergence of a large number of new institutions and the need to improve the market supervision model led to a rapid increase in the number of financial leasing disputes.
Third, internet-related financial disputes continue to emerge. From February 2015 to April 2018, the Qianhai Court accepted 173 Internet financial disputes dominated by P2P disputes. Financial innovation under the background of “Internet+” presents a diversified development model. The new modes of financial transactions such as online payment, virtual currency, financial network loan, and P2P network credit have developed rapidly, reflecting the high activity of the capital market and the strong demand for funds in Shenzhen. It is also in line with Shenzhen’s development goal of deepening the cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong and the development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, and promoting the international financial openness and innovation.
Fourth, private lending disputes occur frequently. As of April 2018, the Qianhai Court accepted a total of 1,552 foreign-related private lending cases, accounting for 36.31% of FHMT-related cases. The frequent disputes over private lending reflect to a certain extent the strong demand for capital as well as the high activity of the capital market in the period of venture and development of commercial subjects in Shenzhen.
Fifth, e-commerce trading platforms such as cross-border e-commerce have developed rapidly. From February 2015 to April 2018, the Qianhai Court heard 21 cross-border e-commerce cases and these disputes mainly involved the import product quality issues of cross-border e-commerce. At present, Shenzhen has pushed Qianhai to take advantage of the location advantage of Shenzhen-Hong Kong linkage, the operation advantage of bonded port area, and the policy support provided by the state to vigorously promote the development of cross-border e-commerce, and to establish the first Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border e-commerce security demonstration zone of China. The scale of cross-border e-commerce industry import and export increased by more than 80% year-on-year.
Sixth, new types of enterprise cases are increased. In enterprise disputes, disputes about liability for damages in related transactions involving the rights and interests of enterprises and shareholders, the enterprise’s earnings distribution disputes, enterprise license reimbursement disputes, enterprise resolution dispute resolution disputes, and shareholders’ damages to enterprise creditors’ interest liability disputes ranged from 13 in 2015 to 99 in 2018, with an average annual increase of 177%. It reflects that the reform of the commercial registration system and the innovation of foreign investment access management implemented in Shenzhen have played a good role in the entry of enterprises. In addition, new cases such as financial derivative product transaction disputes, entrusted financial management disputes, Sino-foreign contractual joint venture contract disputes, and import and export agency contract disputes also grew rapidly.
1.1.5. Significantly increasing of the number of contractual jurisdiction and reflecting the significant improvement of judicial credibility.
With the active involvement of FHMT-related commercial activities, the commercial disputes have also increased. Due to the persistence and non-adversity of commercial activities, the commercial subjects at home and abroad are willing to choose trustworthy judicial institutions to hear commercial disputes by fair, efficient, and convenient dispute resolution mechanisms. According to statistics, as of 2016, there were only 502 cases under the contractual jurisdiction accepted by the Qianhai Court, and by the end of April 2018, it had risen to 4,231. More parties were willing to choose the Qianhai Court for litigation reflecting that the justice and efficiency of the trial in the Qianhai Court has been fully recognized by the public. The parties reflected that the company they represent and the other party have already agreed to sue to the Qianhai Court when disputes occur. As a new type of court in the Qianhai Free Trade Zone, the Qianhai Court has comprehensively promoted many reform measures, had many positive practices in promoting fair and efficient trial of cases, and has already demonstrated these practices well. Therefore, the Qianhai Court is worthy of trust.
1.2 Adhering to the protection of the rule of law and creating a stable, fair, transparent predictable and legalized business environment
1.2.1 Always adhering to the international common judicial philosophy and fully strengthening alignment with international economic and trade rules.
First, adhering to the principle of equal protection in accordance with the law. The Qianhai Court bases its efforts on the development of the “Belt and Road” initiative and the development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, adheres to the basic principles of cooperation, win-win , openness and integration. The Court strictly follows the criteria of equality of legal status, rights protection, and development opportunities for market entities in different countries and regions, as well as different ownership entities, and different industry stakeholders.The Court effectively maintains a fair, orderly, honest, trustworthy, harmonious and win-win legalized environment, as well as promotes a more open, inclusive, common, balanced and win-win development of an open economy in Shenzhen.
Second, full respect of free will and freedom of contract. The Qianhai Court insists on advocating and protecting the freedom of trade, and safeguarding the interests of commercial subjects in accordance with the law. In the aspects of case jurisdiction, law application, contract content and liability of breach of contract, the party’s free will is fully guaranteed in accordance with the law. It is necessary to accurately judge the contract effectiveness of all kinds of transaction models and trade structure innovation under the new economic development state, strengthen contract awareness, sense of rule and responsibility of the market subjects, and promote the vitality of the market economy.
Third, accurate understanding and full compliance with international treaties and international conventions. It is necessary to strengthen the vision of internationalization, adhere to the obligations of treaties during trails of FHMT-related cases, accurately understand and fully comply with international treaties and conventions, promote the international inter-regional credibility of Chinese judiciary through fair and efficient trials, and provide international rule of law safeguards for the high-level open development.
1.2.2 Fully playing the role of judicial protection and creating an open and inclusive investment and trade environment.
First, working for and guaranteeing a more attractive investment environment. As the frontier of China’s reform and opening-up, Shenzhen shoulders the historic mission of exploring new ways and accumulating new experiences for China’s comprehensive deepening of reforms and expanding open policies . As a court that centrally administers FHMT-related commercial cases, the Qianhai Court is committed to providing judicial protection during Shenzhen’s opening-up and systemic innovation. Based on the accurate application of the law, the Qianhai Court focused its efforts on the timely adjustment of the scale of the referee and actively supported the changes in the functions of the Shenzhen government as well as the adjustment of foreign investment policies. The Qianhai Court equally protects the legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs at home and abroad, strengthens the protection of property rights, encourages competition, enhances transparency, and enhances the attractiveness of foreign investment by creating a good legal environment.
Second, working for and guaranteeing financial hub construction. The Qianhai Court continues to promote the professionalization of financial trial teams, formulates trial guidelines for financial cases, and raises the level of specialization in financial trials. The Qianhai Court also protects legitimate transactions, guides and regulates various types of financial behaviors, fully regulates and maintains the financial order, and actively safeguards against systematic financial risks. The Qianhai Court tries to strengthen the protection of financial consumers and effectively safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. In addition, the Qianhai Court carefully examines the innovative financial transaction modes in Shenzhen and the effectiveness of the contracts, broadens the scope of cooperation between China and foreign financial markets, promotes the orderly and coordinated development of the financial industries of Shenzhen and Hong Kong and Macao and works toward Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Bay Area becoming a financial hub in service of the “Belt and Road” project.
Third, working for and guaranteeing Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area to become a new center of international innovation. From February 2, 2015 to April 30, 2018, the Qianhai Court handled 350 cases of intellectual property rights. The Qianhai Court actively serves the country to implement innovation-driven development strategies, strictly protects intellectual property rights, and improves intellectual property protection rules. The Qianhai Court establishes the concept of protection, innovation and development, optimizes the legal environment for Shenzhen's scientific and technological innovation, encourages Chinese and foreign enterprises to carry out normal technical exchanges and cooperation, and protects the legal intellectual property rights of foreign-funded enterprises in Shenzhen. The Qianhai Court also explores the application of punitive damages, strives to solve the problems of low infringement costs and high costs of rights protection, and effectively safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders at home and abroad.
1.2.3 Strengthening the leading function of judicial demonstration and responding to the expected judicial demand for commercial activities at home and abroad.
First, formulating normative guarantee opinions and raising the confidence of commercial subjects at home and abroad to invest and start businesses. In May 2015, the Qianhai Court issued the Opinions on Providing Judicial Protection for the Construction of Free Trade Zones and Cooperation Zones, which elaborates on the philosophy of justice and trial functions. The Qianhai Court also formulated the Opinions on Providing Judicial Protection for the Construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, actively responded to the issues of common interest and market subjects in the Free Trade Zone and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, and actively promoted the construction of the Free Trade Zone and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area . Through the introduction of a number of safeguard opinions, the Qianhai Court has legally ensured that domestic and foreign commercial subjects can independently choose dispute resolution methods, equally participate in litigation procedures, freely select and apply extraterritorial laws, as well as resolve disputes fairly and efficiently, thus enhancing the confidence of domestic and foreign commercial entities to invest and start businesses.
Second, advocating and guiding good faith and promoting the construction of an honest society. The Qianhai Court formulated the Provisions on Preventing and Punishing Non-honest Litigation, cracked down on bad faith enterprises and individuals, punished market and litigation violations and established a new type of judicial supervision system by effectively restraining non-honest litigation behaviors such as breach of contract, delay in litigation, malicious litigation and false litigation, so as to promote the establishment of a sound and open economic security system and safeguard the legal environment for fair competition.
Third, collaborating with social management innovation and improving the governance level of the rule of law. The Qianhai Court strengthens the risk analysis and early warning mechanism, regularly or specially compiles commercial risk assessment reports, establishes the consultation research mechanism with the function department, unblocks the information exchange and the sharing channel, and forms channels of social risk prevention and control. In response to the type problems or new situations and issues found during trials, the Qianhai Court has sorted out risks and loopholes in market supervision, industry self-discipline, and business operations. A total of 9 judicial recommendations on Perfecting the Review of Insurance Business and Strictly Investigating and Punishing the Illegal Business Practices of Microfinance Companies were issued to 6 institutions such as the Shenzhen Factors Association and the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government Financial Development Service Office, which helped to improve the adoption and feedback mechanisms, to provide judicial reference for administrative decisions, to effectively plug social governance loopholes, and to improve scientific management.
1.3 Implementing trial brand strategies and building a comprehensive, reliable and first-rate judicial quality
1.3.1 Specialization of case trial.
First, centralization of jurisdiction. The Qianhai Court’s centralized jurisdiction over Shenzhen’s first instance of FHMT-related commercial cases is conducive to the integration of judicial resources and the promotion of efficiency and higher quality of trials. According to statistics, before the Qianhai Court centrally administered Shenzhen’s first instance of FHMT-related commercial cases, the average time for the Shenzhen primary court to close FHMT-related commercial cases was 17.2 months. After the Qianhai Court’s centralized jurisdiction, the trial time was shortened to 8.5 months, and the trial efficiency increased by more than 50%.
Second, specialization of judges. The Qianhai Court aims to establish a “summit of talent” for a specialized trial of “elite judges + people’s assessors of Hong Kong + industry experts” and build a team of elite judges with international visions, outstanding professional skills and strong foreign language skills. The Qianhai Court established the Qianhai Expert Advisory Committee to absorb experts in the fields of finance and insurance, international trade, and intellectual property at home and abroad, and provided professional advice on complex and difficult cases. The Qianhai Court selected 32 people’s assessors of Hong Kong to participate in the settlement of Hong Kong-related disputes and eliminate the impact of the difference in system philosophy and living environment on the credibility of the judiciary. As of April 2018, people’s assessors of Hong Kong participated in the trial of 89 cases.
Third, specialization of trial organizations. In view of the characteristics of the case, expert judges with common law background and deep experience in intellectual property and finance, familiarity with international law, international economic and trade rules were selected to form the collegiate bench for FHMT-related commercial cases and the collegiate bench for commercial trials of the “Belt and Road” Initiative. At the same time, the conferences of professional judges involved in FHMT-related commercial trials were set up to give full play to the role of professional judges in consulting and supervising major difficult and complex cases and restricting and standardizing the exercise of the judge’s discretion. As of April, 2018, a total of 29 conferences of professional judges involved in f FHMT-related commercial trials were held to guarantee and enhance the professional level of FHMT-related commercial trials.
1.3.2 The unification of judicial criteria.
First, trial and judge guidelines for cases were issued to enhance the predictability and credibility of the judges. Guidelines for Trial Cases Related to Free Trade Zones and Cooperation Zones was formulated and implemented, which regulates in detail the trial mechanisms for eight types of cases, including contracts, finance, companies, financial leasing, intellectual property rights and so on. Referee Guidelines for the Factoring Contracts and Referee Guidelines for Financial Leasing Disputes were also issued and implemented to deal with new types of cases such as foreign factoring, cross-border e-commerce, stock distribution, and Internet finance according to the law, lead and encourage foreign investment in Shenzhen’s new industry innovations, and guide and standardize the sound development of new market conditions.
Second, the system of regular release of typical cases was implemented to regulate and guide the behavior of commercial subjects at home and abroad. The Qianhai Court successively issued three batches of 22 typical cases including “undisclosed factoring”, “after-sale leaseback financing lease”, “art share trading”, Qingcheng Company v. ILHAMI international goods sale contract dispute case, Qixiang Company v. RGB Company sale contract dispute case and so on, which mainly involved areas such as enterprise lending, financial leasing, financial derivatives, and international goods sale. By clarifying the judicial attitude to commercial activities such as “financial derivatives transactions” and “undisclosed factoring”, the legal gap can be effectively filled to provide guidance for the conduct of commercial entities within and outside the region.
1.3.3 The standardization of trial procedures.
First, formulating the guidelines for trial procedures and improving the standardization of FHMT-related cases. The Qianhai Court formulates the Guidelines on the Trial Procedures of Foreign, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-related Commercial Cases, and fully stipulates the trial procedures of FHMT-related commercial cases from the aspects of diversified dispute resolution, jurisdiction, filing and accepting, split-flow of the complicated and the simple cases, trial organization, service and preservation, certification of evidence, trial of cases, enforcement procedures, and recognition and enforcement of judgements. The Qianhai Court sorts out all important points in the trial of FHMT-related commercial cases, controls the standards for the handling of important links, strengthens the supervision and management of trial procedures, guides the standardized trail of cases, and comprehensively improves the quality and effectiveness of trials of FHMT-related commercial cases.
Second, strengthening the norms of reasoning the judge documents. The Qianhai Court optimizes the allocation of judicial resources through the establishment of multi-layered litigation procedures so as to achieve rapid review of cases and sophisticated investigations. The Qianhai Court established a rigid restraint and incentive mechanism for the enforcement of reasoning the referee documents so as to strengthen the sense of reasoning, improve the ability to reason, fully respond to the propositions and reasons put forward by the parties, and improve the persuasiveness and credibility of the referees, which has helped obtaining positive legal and social results on the trails regarding inconvenience for court jurisdiction, transfer of attorney fees, punishment for malicious misrepresentation and so on. The Qianhai Court has successively launched 25 high-quality cases, among which 4 cases have been selected as the top ten model cases of judicial protection in the Guangdong Free Trade Zone, and the cases that are unsuitable for court jurisdiction were adopted by Cases Collection of People’s Court. Cases Collection of People’s Court were awarded as the high-quality documents of the courts in Guangdong Province in 2016, and eight cases were in-depth reported by People’s Court Daily, People’s Justice Daily and Legal Daily.
2. Building a Fair, Efficient, Convenient and Authoritative Mechanism for FHMT-related Commercial Trials and Creating a “Qianhai Brand” with High Judicial Credibility
2.1 Scientifically setting litigation procedures and effectively solving litigation efficiency issues commonly seizing attention of commercial subjects at home and abroad
2.1.1 Establishing introduction procedures for dispute resolutions compatible with the complexity of cases and ensuring efficient resolution of foreign-related cases.
The court adheres to the principle of paying equal attention to justice and efficiency, establishes and improves the case classification mechanism for foreign-related cases, further strengthens the court’s management of litigation process, rationally allocates judicial resources, and further enhances trial efficiency. First, establishing a more rational case distribution system. The court formulates Several Provisions on Perfecting the Case Distribution Mechanism in Foreign-related Cases. On the basis of the characteristics of foreign-related cases and comprehensively considering factors such as the parties’ litigation requests, evidences and extraterritorial law ascertainment, the Qianhai Court certifies the classification standards and rules for simple cases and complicated cases and separates the cases into quick-judging procedure, summary procedure and ordinary procedure, thus forming a multi-level dispute resolution mechanism. Second, improving the mechanism that “simple cases should be heard quickly” and “complicated cases should be heard accurately”. The Qianhai Court improves the trial mechanism for quick-judging cases, further expands the application scope of quick-judging procedure and summary procedure, adopts trial modes of “outpatient-type trials” and “arbitrary-type judgements,” and implements systems such as the pronouncement of judgement in court in quick-judging cases and quick-access judgement documents. The court further distinguishes the boundary between sole-judge trial and summary procedure, and implements the trial mode of sole-judge trial in foreign-related cases. The court establishes a sophisticated trial mechanism for foreign-related complicated cases, strengthens the protection of elite judicial personnel, improves the system for discovering and nurturing high-quality cases as well as enhances the quality of foreign-related trials and international inter-regional judicial credibility.
2.1.2 Establishing a scientific and efficient service mechanism of foreign-related commercial cases and making efforts to solve the difficulties in serving foreign-related cases.
On the basis of the existing legal framework, Several Provisions on the Service of Judicial Documents Concerning Foreign, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan-related Civil and Commercial Cases is formulated to actively explore new ways for the effective service of foreign-related cases. First, establishing a transfer and service system for parties involved in Hong Kong-related cases. The court adheres to the principle of effective service and, by appropriately drawing lessons from the philosophy of Anglo-American legal systems that the service should be carried out between parties, establishes a system for the transfer and service between parties and lawyers in Hong Kong-related cases, and serving legal procedural documents and related legal documents to the defendant by plaintiffs or lawyers to enhance trial efficiency. In the case of disputes over Hong Kong financial loan contracts between Bank H as well as Company Z and another 9 defendants, the plaintiff and 6 of the defendants have their domicile in Hong Kong. In this case, the plaintiff successfully served documents like the court summons within one week by transferring the documents to the plaintiff, which greatly shortened the service time and ensured that the trial proceeded smoothly. Second, further improving the announcement service system for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-related cases. The court explicitly defines that there is “exhaust all other methods of servicing” involving Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan-related cases. If the defendant is a company or other organisation that has been proved to not exist or has been relocated after service, it can be deemed that all methods of service have been exhausted. No other service will be carried out through mutual legal assistance. The court clarifies the carrier of the announcements and that in foreign-related cases announcements will be published in the People’s Court Daily, to resolve the practical issue of carriers being inconsistent in their announcements. Third, exploring the advanced registration and identification of the servicing address of legal documents. The court actively serves the reform of the commercial registration system in the Free Trade Zone, studies and explores when the market supervisory authority registers enterprise registration information, to increase the record of the service address of the legal documents related to business operation, promotes the improvement of the open economic security system and protects the legitimate rights and interests of market entities.
2.1.3 Improving the trial-oriented litigation mechanism and equally protecting the substantive and procedural rights of parties at home and abroad.
The court formulates Working Procedures on Improving the Pretrial Procedure for Foreign-related Cases to Promote the Litigation Cooperation of the Parties, actively promotes the reform of the trial-oriented litigation mechanism and establishes a working mechanism throughout the entire process of the litigation. The court also strengthens the litigation cooperation of the parties, ensures the substantial leading role of the parties in the litigation and realises the organic integration of fairness and efficiency. First, improving the parties’ plea system. The court refines the requirements for the plaintiff to sue, standardises the contents of the complaint, establishes a system of mandatory response for foreign-related cases, and makes it clear that defendants should submit written pleadings before the deadline for filing the defence. Otherwise, the court can punish the defendants with litigation costs and counsel fees to prevent the defendant from making a sudden defence. Second, improving the evidence system for foreign-related cases. The court establishes a lawyer investigation order system, standardises the procedures for investigating and collecting evidence, and supports lawyers to hold a court investigation order to investigate the bank accounts, archives and other evidence of the parties. The court establishes an evidence disclosure system to promote parties to resolve disputes through mediation, strengthens the system of witnesses, appraisers and experts appearing in court, standardises evidence investigation procedures for witnesses not appearing in court, improves procedures and safeguards for experts and appraiser appearing in court, and plays the auxiliary role of experts in solving professional issues. Third, improving the pretrial meeting and the trial procedure. The court establishes a pretrial meeting system, promotes substantive pretrial preparation procedures, strengthens the collating function of the pretrial meeting and ensures the actual results of pretrial preparation. The court advocates for staged collegiate meetings to ensure that the court trials focus on the dispute, play a decisive role in the trial, and improve the quality of the trial. The court fully implements the principles of evidentiary adjudication, strengthens the awareness of the trial as the centre, strengthens cross-examination in the court, promotes the organic integration of the investigation and debate stage, and promotes more efficient and flexible trial procedures. The court also explores case centred trials, promotes the centralisation of evidence investigations and debates, and advocates judgements in court in simple case trials.
2.2 Establishing a systematic safeguard mechanism for the ascertainment and application of foreign law and ensuring the right of commercial entities at home and abroad to choose the applicable law
The Qianhai Court closely focuses on serving the new pattern of fully opening-up, actively responds to the legal requirements of Chinese and foreign commercial subjects regarding the application of judgements on extraterritorial laws, and makes efforts to create “Qianhai Business Cards” identified and applied by the law and provides strong judicial guarantees for enterprises’ “bringing in” and “going out”. As of April 2018, there are a total of 37 cases in which the parties have chosen to apply extraterritorial laws. Among them, 35 cases in which the parties chose to apply Hong Kong laws, 1 chose Japanese law and 1 chose U.S. law. There are 6 cases successfully mediated and 14 cases judged by the application of extraterritorial laws.
2.2.1 Establishing a comprehensive and full guideline for the identification of Hong Kong-related cases and maximising the application of foreign laws.
In order to guide parties at home and abroad to correctly identify Hong Kong-related factors and to ensure that the parties are free to choose applicable Hong Kong laws, the Qianhai Court has formulated the Guidelines on the Judgement of the Correctly Identified Hong Kong-related Factors Concerning Civil and Commercial Cases to systemise the identification of Hong Kong-related factors and provide guidelines and references for parties to freely choose to apply Hong Kong law. First, explaining in detail various circumstances of Hong Kong-related factors and maximising the identification of Hong Kong-related factors. The court clearly determines ways of identifying various Hong Kong-related factors such as subjects, subject matters and legal facts involving Hong Kong affairs, lists out more than 30 circumstances involving Hong Kong-related factors, and clarifies Hong Kong-related circumstances relating to the “places of signing contracts”. The court also identifies Hong Kong-related factors in financial securities disputes, and fully considers the impact of IT on the economic and trade exchanges between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, which is called “the most comprehensive and meticulous guideline for Hong Kong-related factors” by the parties. Second, fully respecting party’s free will and improving the circumstances for more inclusive application of Hong Kong laws. The court identifies that the contents of the contract quote the legal effect of the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The court properly balances the correlation between foreign-related factors and Hong Kong-related factors and allows parties in foreign, Macao and Taiwan-related cases to choose to apply Hong Kong laws. Where the contract is signed in written form, if the signing place agreed under the contract is that of a foreign country or Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, but the actual signing place is inconsistent with that of the written contract, the signing place agreed in the contract is identified as the place where the contract is signed in accordance with the law. For Hong Kong or foreign-related legal factors associated with the cases, the court allows the parties to choose applicable international commercial practices or international trade rules to promote an international business environment in the Free Trade Zone.
2.2.2 Establishing a comprehensive system of the ascertainment of foreign laws and removing obstacles to the ascertainment in the application of foreign laws.
The Qianhai Court formulates the Measures for Ascertainment of Foreign Laws, and promotes the resolution of issues in the ascertainment of foreign laws, such as single method ascertainment and inadequate supporting procedures, by establishing a systematic ascertainment system. First, further establishing the “full efforts principle” of law ascertainment and making efforts to achieve “where there is a choice, there can be an application”. In active response to the strong willingness of Hong Kong parties to choose Hong Kong Laws, the Qianhai Court further clarifies that full efforts should be made in the ascertainment of laws. Those cannot be simply determined that “unascertainable”. As for cases in which the litigation is filed in the Qianhai Court and that apply Hong Kong laws or other national or regional laws, the court will exhaust all methods of ascertainment and fully ensure that the parties’ choice of applying Hong Kong laws can be realised. Second, further clarifying the methods, subjects and responsibilities of the ascertainment and ensuring organic integration of rights and liabilities. The court expands the methods for ascertaining foreign laws, adds methods such as commissioning professional agencies and having judges themselves check extraterritorial law, and clarifies that courts should ascertain the circumstances of foreign laws and the methods and principles for ascertainment according to their functions and powers. The court fully plays the advantages of Qianhai in exchanges and cooperation with Hong Kong, and the convenience of the “one centre, two bases” mechanism for ascertainment of Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign laws established by the Supreme People’s Court in Qianhai to fully protect the ability to ascertain Hong Kong laws. Third, further clarifying the review procedures for the ascertainment of foreign laws and ensuring the credibility and availability of the ascertainment of foreign laws. From the aspects of objectivity, authenticity, and relevance, the court carefully examines the ascertained foreign laws and further standardises the procedures for the review, identification and confirmation of foreign laws to increase the operability of judges to review foreign laws. In the first Hong Kong-related case involving financial leasing disputes in the Qianhai Court that applies Hong Kong laws, the judge concluded after review that “this case takes the legal opinion issued by a Hong Kong lawyer and the court confirms that the matters in the mediation agreement in this case do not violate relevant laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. There is no circumstance that impairs the public interest of the People’s Republic of China and the court confirms the mediation agreement in this case.”
2.2.3 Establishing a sound foreign law application system and ensuring the correct ascertainment and application of foreign laws.
The court gives full play to the advantages of people’s assessors of Hong Kong and Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign experts, ensures the professionalism and accuracy of the application of foreign law judgements and comprehensively increases the level of legal ascertainment and application. First, fully playing the role of Hong Kong experts and jurors in the application of extraterritorial law judgements. In cases that apply extraterritorial laws, people’s assessor of Hong Kong use their professional knowledge and cultural background to further broaden the channels for ascertainment of foreign laws and enhance the degree of cultural identity and sense of trust in the settlement of Hong Kong-related disputes. Among them, the financial leasing contract disputes in which “D Bank v. L Company” directed by People’s assessor of Hong Kong is mediated and a mediation agreement is reached by applying Hong Kong laws. This was the first case in which the Qianhai Court applied Hong Kong laws for judgement and attracting full attention of the public. This case has been selected as one of the ten model cases of judicial safeguards in Guangdong Free Trade Zones and is recommended by the media as a “‘small step’ for the Qianhai Court and ‘a major step’ for promoting business confidence”, which effectively strengthens the confidence in the rule of law for foreign investment in the Qianhai Free Trade Zone. Second, further clarifying the nature and effectiveness of experts’ opinions on the ascertainment of foreign law. The court makes detailed provisions on aspects such as the selection of ascertainment experts, the qualifications of experts, and the review and adoption of expert opinions. At present, the court has adopted and applied the legal opinions provided by experts in Hong Kong-related cases. For example, in the financial leasing contract dispute case D Bank v. L Company, the Qianhai Court finally took the laws and precedents provided in the Legal Opinions as the basis for the judgement after comprehensively reviewing the professional background of and the Legal Opinions provided by lawyer M. For another example, in the Hong Kong-related case of contract disputes L company v. Z company, due to the disagreement on the application of Hong Kong laws issued by legal experts of both parties, the Qianhai Court brought experts of both sides to the court to cross-examine evidences, which received a good result.
2.2.4 Establishing a national research base for ascertainment of foreign law and creating “Qianhai Business Cards” for the ascertainment and application of foreign laws.
The Qianhai Court promotes the establishment of a higher-level research platform for extraterritorial laws, creates a theoretical and practical highland for Qianhai to apply Hong Kong laws, further enhances the trial capabilities of FHMT-related cases to increase international inter-regional judicial credibility. First, the settling of national “one centre, two bases” in Qianhai. The ascertainment research centre of China for Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign laws, the ascertainment research base of the Supreme People’s Court for Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign laws and the ascertainment base of the Supreme People’s Court for Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign laws settled in Qianhai to take advantage of Qianhai’s unique regional advantages and policy advantages. The court creates a legal platform for interactive cooperation between the practical department and the research department and promotes the law ascertainment mechanisms that apply to in the whole China. Second, establishing a seminar mechanism for the ascertainment and application of laws. The Qianhai Court organised the “Supreme People’s Court’s Seminar on the Ascertainment and Application of Law” in 2015, 2016 and 2017, inviting legal experts from the Supreme People’s Court, the Ministry of Justice, institutions of higher education and Hong Kong to participate in the seminar and gathered the wisdom of all parties to jointly discuss and solve problems in the application of extraterritorial laws. Third, creating an interactive platform for law ascertainment resources. The court strengthens in-depth cooperation with institutions of higher education, research institutions and third-party ascertainment agencies, actively promotes the building of the nation’s first experts database, law library and case library for law ascertainment, improves the accuracy of law ascertainment and application and promotes the Qianhai Court to be constructed as the centre of international commercial dispute resolution.
2.3 Building a litigation system of international commercial integrity and promoting the prosperity and development of international trade
2.3.1 Improving the litigation cost burden mechanism and counsel fee transfer mechanism and guiding the reasonable resolution of international commercial disputes.
Under the principle of guaranteeing party’s free will, the court further strengthens the judge’s control over the litigation process, formulates Several Regulations on the Prevention and Punishment of Unfaithful Litigation Actions and establishes prohibitive regulation and an anti-suit injunction system against malicious litigation, abuse of litigation rights, false lawsuits and other such acts. The court also explores the use of litigation fees to regulate unreasonable litigation, guiding parties to proceed litigation with faithfulness and rationality. First, improving the litigation fees burden mechanism. The court allows the judges to fully consider the facts of the case, the judgement, the actions of both parties, the comparison of resources and other factors based on the case procedure and the substantive resolution results. For example, if the parties intentionally delay the proceedings and affect the proceedings, the judges is allowed to assign proportional fees of the proceedings to both parties, guiding the parties to reasonable litigation and thus achieves the purpose of realising substantive justice. Second, establishing a counsel fee transfer mechanism. The court formulates Several Regulations on the Correct Judgement of Counsel Fees to Promote Litigation with Faithfulness and Rationality. On the basis of the principle of fairness in accordance with the law and the principle of punishing malice, the court summarises practical circumstances such as malicious litigation, delay of litigation and counsel fees borne by the losing party and refines them to allow judges to decide whether the counsel fees are wholly or partly borne by the losing party based on the circumstances of the case and takes it as a means of controlling litigation and punishing unfaithful litigation. In a case of corporate bond transaction disputes, in response to the party’s breach of contract, misuse of jurisdictional objections and other misconduct, through the application of the counsel fee transfer mechanism, the unfaithful party was sentenced to bear the counsel fees of the plaintiff totalling 300,000 yuan, which achieves good legal and social results.
2.3.2 Strengthening the punishments imposed on dishonest people in foreign-related cases to demonstrate China’s judicial authority.
In addition to the use of litigation fees and the leverage of counsel fees to regulate unfaithful conduct in foreign-related trials and enforcements, the court further details corresponding sanctions based on the extent of actions that impair civil litigation and harm the rights and interests of others. First, strengthening the crackdown on misrepresentation. The court further clarifies the punitive measures against different subjects, strengthens the punishments against actions that seriously obstruct the litigation, such as misrepresentation, and applies measures such as a summons, admonishment, fines, or detention according to law to ensure the proportionality of punishments. In a license retraction case, M Company v. Wen’s Company, considering that Wen, a Hong Kong party, repeatedly made misrepresentations in the trial, which seriously delayed proceedings and damaged the legitimate interests of the plaintiff, the Qianhai Court imposes a 100,000 yuan maximum fine on Wen. The party accepted the judgement and gave up the litigation, which effectively led the party to faithful litigation, safeguarded judicial authority and achieved good results. Second, publishing the list of dishonest people who are subject to enforcement. For those people who are subject to enforcement for deliberately failing to perform the obligations determined in the effective legal documents, the court issues a list of dishonest people who are subject to enforcement according to the law and includes the dishonest conduct of litigation into the social credit system. If a dishonest person holds a post of senior executive, legal representative or shareholder of a company, a warning shall be issued to his/her company, the record of the person’s unfaithfulness shall be disclosed and the pressure to perform the effective judgement shall be increased. Third, taking punitive measures such as restricting departure and entry. In view of the large proportion of foreign-related cases handled by the Qianhai Court, for those Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign people subject to enforcement, the court promptly checks the immigration information of the people through the Hawkeye Network, promptly restricts their entry-exit clearance and forces them to perfrom their obligations by restricting their high-level spending and other methods. As of April 2018, the Qianhai Court has published a total of 1,863 dishonest persons, restricted the entry-exit clearance of 332 persons, issued restrictions on high-level spending to 1051 persons, detained 31 persons and imposed fines on 3 persons so as to protect the legitimate rights and interests of applicants to the maximum extent and safeguard judicial authority of China.
2.3.3 Advocating lawyers to faithfully participate in foreign-related litigations and jointly building a honest, open, inclusive and legalized environment.
The court adheres to the concept of co-construction, sharing and co-governance, gives full play to the role of judicial guidance, deepens the normalised cooperation and exchanges with Guangdong-Hong Kong joint-operated law firms, strengthens research cooperation in law ascertainment and service of foreign-related cases, and jointly establishes a faithful and open judicial service system for the two places. In cooperation with the Shenzhen Lawyers Association, the court signs the Memorandum for Promoting the Construction of the Legal Professional Community, refines and implements the lawyers’ practice rights and ensures that the lawyers’ practice rights are substantively safeguarded. The court advocates lawyers to participate in litigation with faithfulness and rationality, guides parties to participate in litigation activities with faithfulness and respect for court authority. For lawyers who conduct dishonest litigation, they must be sanctioned in accordance with the law and the court will issue judicial advice to judicial administrative departments and lawyers associations to create a free, open and inclusive international business environment.
3. Deepening the Comprehensive Supplementary Reform of the Judicial Systems and Establishing a Judicial Mechanism Required for the New Pattern of Comprehensive Opening-up
3.1 Maintaining the integrity and comprehensiveness of the reform and building an overall framework for the comprehensive supplementary reform of judicial systems
Through implementing the reform spirits of the central government and the reform deployment of the Superior Court and by actively exploring and through pilot trials, the Qianhai Court has managed to organically unify the implementation of top-level design and grassroots innovation and exploration. First, it focuses on the overall features of this round of judicial reform and comprehensively promotes a systematic reform plan. The court focuses on the systematic requirements and features of this round of judicial reform, takes judicial responsibility system reform as the core, formulating a series of classification schemes like Overall Plans on Comprehensively Deepening the Judicial Reform, Implementation Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening the Judicial Reform of the Administrative Management System, Implementation Plans on Improving the Operating Mechanism of Judicial Power and Perfecting the Responsibility System of Judicial Reforms, and Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Judicial Service Mechanism Reform, and comprehensively promotes more than fifty reforms in eight aspects, such as the judicial administration management system, the operating mechanism of judicial power, the judicial personnel management system, the judicial service mechanism and the trial mechanism for foreign, Hong Kong and Macao-related cases. Second, the Qianhai court comprehensively implements the judicial reform deployments made by the central government and the Supreme People’s Court and sets up a basic structure for the comprehensive supplementary reform of the Judicial System. The court promotes the municipal administration of personnel, financial and property resources. The judicial officials of the Qianhai Court are directly administrated by the Organisational Department of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee. Its judges are appointed and dismissed by submitting to the Standing Committee of the Municipal People’s Congress and its judicial expenditure are included in the municipal level financial budget. The Qianhai Court also implements the classification management of judicial officials, enhances judicial profession protection, implements the judge staff system and judge professionalisation and implements an independent payment system that is equal to the judge’s ranks so as to lay the foundations for cultivating elite judges. The court defines the job responsibilities, job standards, job processes and career development of all types of court personnel to safeguard the job security of contractual judicial personnel. The Qianhai Court, taking the implementation of judicial responsibility system as its goal, establishes a judicial authority operating mechanism with judicial service as its core, effectively regulates factors that may affect the independent execution of judicial authority and sets up a basic structure for the comprehensive supplementary reform of judicial systems. Third, the Qianhai Court emphasises regional demands and grassroots innovation to forge reform experience with Qianhai characteristics. The Qianhai Court closely embraces the new pattern of serving comprehensive opening up to the outside world, and actively meets the judicial demands of commercial subjects in the Free Trade Zone. On the basis of implementing all the fundamental reforms, the Qianhai Court comprehensively promotes the foreign, Hong Kong and Macao-related litigation mechanism reforms. Insisting on the principle of equal protection, the Qianhai Court attaches importance to its connection with international general commercial rules, perfects the judicial rules of foreign commercial affairs, establishes an ascertainment and application system for extraterritorial laws, sets up an international alternative dispute resolution platform and develops a reform model with Qianhai characteristics for foreign trials, thus it provides experience that can be promoted for China’s judicial reforms.
3.2 Maintaining the harmony and synergy of the reform and stimulating internal impetus for reform to the utmost extent
The Qianhai Court fully grasps the logical relationship between mechanisms of judicial systems and pays attention to the unanimity, organic connection and integration of the various reform measures, which stimulates internal impetus for reform to the utmost extent. First, the Qianhai Court balances the relationship between implementing a judicial responsibility system and strengthening the judicial supervision and management, and establishes a new judicial authority operating mechanism with a judicial responsibility system as its core. The Qianhai Court, in accordance with the law, guarantees that judicial authority will be reasonably restored and effectively implemented, makes a list of the functions and powers of sole judges, collegiate panels and judicial committees and implements the full system of recording and filing the exercising of trial supervision management powers guaranteeing that judges can trial independently in accordance with the law. The Qianhai Court establishes more scientific methods and evaluation standards for the quality management of cases, creates scientific performance evaluation mechanisms and conduct guidelines for judges, implements a system of performance evaluation forms for judges and highlights the distinction and precision between the evaluation and the accountability of case-resolving responsibilities. It further standardises the judicial criteria and creates systems like professional judge’s meetings to ensure that judges can “trial independently” rather than “trial in isolation”. The Qianhai Court strictly implements the system that highly complex cases be handled by the Court President and Court Vice Presidents. From January 2017 to April 2018, there were a total of 285 cases handled by the Court President and two Court Vice Presidents, of which 62 were handled by the Court President and 110 and 113 by the two Court Vice Presidents respectively, which, when compared to the other judges in the court, with the exception of fast handling judges, respectively account for 24.16%, 42.86% and 44.03% of the average number of cases handled. Second, the Qianhai Court effectively balances the relationship between official judicial systems for a specified number of personnel, a huge increased number of cases and quality trials and builds a new judicial mechanism with greater equality, justice, public trust and high efficiency. The court makes full use of the role of multi-level litigation mechanisms, promotes the construction of an alternative dispute resolution mechanism and insists that “simple cases be handled quickly” and “complicated cases be handled accurately” so as to further perfect the quick judging working mechanisms, to refine the application range and standards of summary procedures and quick judging procedures and guarantee the reasonable investment of judicial resources to the utmost extent. The court optimises its distribution of judicial resources, actively introduces various social resources like public notary departments in the court’s judicial administrative affairs and judicial assistant affairs, and elevates the quantity and quality of judge assistants, and defines the procedural work responsibilities and the judicial ancillary work requirements and ensures judges are focusing on core judicial affairs. The Qianhai Court also fully implements quality judicial strategies, formulates systematic work guidelines, improves the operation model of the judicial team and defines the subjective responsibilities of judges, judges assistants and judicial officers in the quality judicial strategy. The court strengthens the judicial process management, protects talents and information, shapes work standards and quality requirements for judicial ancillary work and judicial administration work and guarantees the quality of judicial work through other quality work. Third, the Qianhai Court duly balances the internal and external relationships of the reform of judicial administrative management mechanisms and creates a new judicial administrative management system for the protection of the independent operation of judicial powers in line with the law. The court also promotes reasonable design and flattening operations of judicial administration institutions. When promoting reforms of judicial administrative management systems both inside and outside the court, the Qianhai Court also establishes a new judicial administrative management system with judicial services as its core and effectively regulates external factors that may affect the independent execution of judicial powers. It implements the judicial jurisdiction system that properly divides up administrative devisions and collectively administers the cases of first instance of foreign, Hong Kong and Macao commercial commercial cases that are under the jurisdiction of Shenzhen and general intellectual property rights cases in the Shekou Free Trade Zone of Qianhai. The Qianhai Court breaks down the highly administrative structures of judicial administration organisations, eliminates bureaucracy and implements flattening operations. The court designed only two integrated departments, the Judicial Administration and the Judicial Office. Through team work, the Qianhai Court classified and implemented the judicial administrative functions of nearly 20 old courts and tribunals. Rather than business courts, the court built a team-oriented judicial organisation framework with judges as its core, in which judges independently manage the judicial team so as to ensure the independent judgement of judges in judicial organisations. The Qianhai Court sets up a judicial assembly system to highlight the subjective role of judges, and improves the democratic mechanism of judicial administrative management so as to strengthen the self-management and self-control of judges. The court promotes the separation of judicial administration and judicial adjudication, defines the confines of judicial administrative responsibilities. Court Vice Presidents only manage judicial affairs, while the Judicial Administration and Judicial Office are directly responsible to the Court President, who ensures the utmost separation of function division and personnel allocation between judges and judicial officials.
3.3 Maintaining the precision and normativity of reforms and targeting the key phases of judicial reforms
The Qianhai Court pays close attention to the sections of the reforms, and it focuses on the accurate transformation of reforms from theory to practice and on sparing no effort to solve the key sections of judicial reforms. First, the Qianhai Court earnestly studies the grassroots judicial practice and regional practice to improve the operability and effectiveness of the reforms. Preserving its problem orientation, remaining close to its core problems of “de-localisation”, “de-administration”, “de-popularisation” and so on, the Qianhai Court focuses on the settlement of “the contradiction between the judicial demands of the masses and the supply quality and efficiency of judicial products”, “the contradiction between the administrative nature of judicial management power and the independent implementation of judicial powers”, “the contradiction between the separate implementation of judicial power and the unification of judicial standards” and “the contradiction between the incomplete specialisation of judges and the independent implementation of judicial powers”. Through targeted and systematic reform measures, the Qianhai Court has effectively improved the overall efficiency of comprehensive judicial reforms. Second, the Qianhai Court thoroughly carries out theoretical research and problem analysis and enhances the orientation of reforms to ensure the precise nature of the reforms. On the basis of the construction of a modern international first-class court and of a model for future courts, the Qianhai Court, since its establishment, has made great efforts on the proprieties of judicial reforms and has conducted in-depth fundamental theoretical research. The Qianhai Court has already completed 33 significant theoretical research projects on judicial reforms, including one substantial judicial theoretical research project on the Supreme People’s Court, one substantial project on judicial research, one general project on judicial theories, one general project on the China Law Society and six key projects on the Provincial Higher People’s Court and the Municipal Intermediate People’s Court, and has published The Theoretical Research of Regularities and Proprieties of Judicature—Taking the Goals of the Comprehensive Judicial Reforms of the Qianhai Court as an Example. The book of The Practical Research of the Comprehensive Coordinated Reforms of Judicial Systems--Taking Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court as an Example will soon be published by the People’s Court Publisher. The theoretical research of judicial reforms effectively guarantees the rationality, legality, feasibility and foresight of judicial reform measures. The Qianhai Court formulates specific and feasible practice methods targeting reform goals and promotes the breadth and depth of the active exploration for judicial reforms of the Qianhai Court. Third, the Qianhai Court formulates accurate and practical regulations to enhance the enforceability of reforms. The court formulates and implements 61 systems related to court and judicial management so as to develop 15 sets of working guidelines including Working Guidelines for Comprehensively Implementing the Judicial Responsibility System, Working Guidelines for Elite Judicial Strategies, Guidelines for Judge Conduct, Working Guidelines for Judicial Administrations and Working Guidelines for Judge’s Assistants, and codifies The Systemised and Standarised Exploration of Judicial Reform Practice, The Reasoning and Case Analysis of Typical Civil and Commercial Cases and so on. All the working responsibilities, working processes and working limitations of the Qianhai Court have been comprehensively regulated, standardised and targeted.
4. Insisting on the Philosophy of Working Together to Build and Govern, to Build an Alternative Resolution Mechanism and Platform for International Commercial Affairs of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area
4.1 Insisting on internalisation so as to provide open and inclusive judicial services for commercial subjects at home and abroad
The Qianhai Court was established to serve China’s comprehensive opening-up strategy and the “Belt and Road” initiative and promotes the development of a more open, inclusive, beneficial and mutually beneficial alternative dispute resolution mechanism. The court fully respects the distinctions and varieties of legal systems and cultures between China and foreign parties so as to formulate rules that conform to the internationally shared judicial philosophy of alternative dispute resolution and improves the acceptability of these dispute resolutions to the parties. First, the Qianhai Court establishes a professional cross-regional cooperation mechanism. The court builds a litigation-mediation exchange centre for the international commercial affairs of the “Belt and Road” to establish an alternative dispute resolution mechanism and platform connecting nations and regions. The court establishes partnerships with mediation institutions at home and abroad including Shenzhen International Arbitration, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Mediation Alliance, Hong Kong Mediation Centre and the “Belt and Road” Legal Service Foundation so as to integrate the dispute resolution resources at home and abroad, to strengthen the uniformity of dispute resolution and to raise public trust in dispute resolution. Second, the Qianhai Court establishes an international study and exchange platform. The Qianhai Court has held two sessions of the “Qianhai Mediation Forum of Foreign, Hong Kong and Macao Commercial Affairs”, inviting both China and foreign legal experts, thus promoted the exchanges and cooperation of countries and regions in alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and facilitated the establishment of a litigation-mediation exchange centre for the international commercial affairs of the “Belt and Road”. Third, the Qianhai Court establishes an international mediation team. The Qianhai Court introduces foreign mediation organisations and talents, employs 76 foreign, Hong Kong and Macao mediators, enhances the connection of the mediation and arbitration of cross-border commercial affairs and gives play to the role of foreign specially invited mediators. Twenty two foreign, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan lawyers are selected as specially-invited mediators from 4 law firms of Chinese mainland and China's Hong Kong to meet the multiple judicial demands of cross-border commercial subjects. As of April 2018, Hong Kong mediators successfully mediated 125 cases taking up 27.1% of cases mediated by specially invited mediators, which are fully recognised by the commercial subjects from home and abroad.
4.2 Insisting on marketisation, serving and promoting efficient dispute resolution by applying the principles of market economy
Other than the public interests in people’s mediation and administrative mediation, the mediation of commercial cases should be marketised, which is not only the future direction of commercial dispute resolutions, but also is determined by the features and nature of commercial disputes. The Qianhai Court supports the marketisation of mediation organisations, promotes the sustainable development of mediation organisations through buying social services, and supports the social mediation organisations providing payable mediation services according to the demands of the parties and having negotiating the fee charging with the parties so as to promote the philosophy of dispute resolution, i.e. consultation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, and to give full play to the role of commercial mediation in social governance. The Qianhai Court establishes partnerships with the Shenzhen City Justice Bureau, the Shenzhen Lawyer’s Association, the Shenzhen Qianhai Notary Public Office, and takes advantage of the technical merits of lawyers and notaries in preventing and resolving disputes and guides market resources to focus on dispute resolution. The Qianhai Court also promotes the sustainable development of mediation organisations via buying social services and supports the marketisation of mediation organisations.
4.3 Insisting on socialisation and improving the overall efficiency of dispute resolution by integrating all resources
The Qianhai Court insists on the modern dispute resolution philosophies, i.e. the country leads, the judiciary drives, the public participate, pluralism develops simultaneously and the rule of law safeguards. The court gives full play to the leading and protecting role of the judiciary in dispute resolutions and elevates the efficiency of combining and sharing judicial and social resources. On May 28, 2016, the Qianhai Court established a litigation-mediation exchange centre, and also established cooperative and constructive partnerships with 13 mediation organisations like the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, the Shenzhen Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce in Qianhai and the Shenzhen Lawyer’s Association and built a well-equipped, multitudinous litigation-mediation exchange platform with regulated operations. On January 7, 2018, together with 10 institutions like the Shenzhen Committee for the Promotion of International Trade and Mainland-Hong Kong Joint Mediation Centre, the Qianhai Court established the Qianhai litigation-mediation exchange centre for the international commercial affairs of the “Belt and Road”, to be responsible for the resolution for international commercial disputes. On the basis of this and by strengthening the connection of the mediation and arbitration of cross-border commercial affairs, the Qianhai Court supports both China and foreign parties choosing non-litigation resolutions for resolving disputes and provides convenient, efficient and authoritative mediation services for disputes. As of April 2018, the Qianhai Court totally accepted 3173 mediation cases and 1247 cases were mediated successfully which made up 39.3% of successfully mediated cases, which fully demonstrated the role of the dispute resolution platform.
4.4 Insisting on specialisation and improving the professional recognition and efficiency of commercial mediation
The court establishes a systematic “1+13” mediation working mechanism including mechanisms such as pre-litigation mediation, recording of uncontroversial facts and confirmation of mediation agreements to ensure the regulated and professional operation of mediation. Combined with the construction of a litigation service centre, the Qianhai Court establishes a comprehensive service platform that integrates litigation services, case registration, judicial mediation and litigation-mediation exchange to improve the overall efficiency of dispute resolution. Deepening lawyers’ participation in mediation mechanisms and improving the professionalism of mediation. Since the improvement of lawyers’ participation in mediation mechanisms in December 2017, there have been a total of 148 lawyer mediators participating in mediation, and as of April 2018, 165 commercial cases were successfully mediated. The Qianhai Court implements a pre-litigation mediation process for commercial disputes to establish, improve and regulate mediation mechanisms. The court complies with the minimum mediation principles which stipulates that all cases, except for cases where mediation is not suitable, shall be included in the mediation process for advanced processing. The mediation term is limited to 30 days and for cases which may possibly be resolved by mediation, the term is limited to 60 days. Establishing a penalty mechanism for refusing mediation without reasonable reasons. The leverage role of counsel fees and litigations fees should be fully used to help parties choose mediation to resolve disputes and to strengthen the enforceability and binding effect of mediation. The Qianhai Court establishes an assessment mechanism for neutral third parties. The court guides parties to rationally select dispute resolution mediation to promote the fast settlement of international commercial disputes. In plaintiff Mr. Zhuang v. Hong Kong citizen Mr. Wen and others, a Hong Kong-related case over contract disputes, this case can use the neutral third party assessment mechanism for Hong Kong-related cases owing to the substantial controversy of both parties over repayment liabilities. Hong Kong legal experts were entrusted to issue a professional assessment report. The Qianhai Court specified the relevant Hong Kong laws which could be applied and the possible judgement and helped the parties to better predict the judgement. In the end, the plaintiff withdrew his action, which produced good results. The Qianhai Court has a high starting point and high standards for selecting mediators. According to the types and features of cases accepted by the Qianhai Court, it employs mediators who have financial, international trade, intellectual property and information knowledge background. The Qianhai Court establishes high standard, multi-level and targeted guidance and training to further improve the professionalism, quality of professional skills and mediation ability of lawyer mediators.
4.5 Insisting on informatisation and making the commercial mediation more efficient and convenient through modern technologies
The Qianhai Court takes advantages of modern information technologies and actively promotes the construction of smart courts and makes commercial mediation more efficient and convenient. Establishing an online mediation platform. The Qianhai Court makes full use of the internet, carries out its work through the mediation system of “online courts” on Sina.com and the litigation mediation system of “cloud meetings” so as to ensure the combination of online and offline mediation and make the dispute resolution mechanism more convenient and efficient. Cases have already been resolved through “online mediation”, in which the parties reach a mediation agreement through online remote mediation, achieving positive judicial and social results. By perfecting a system of intelligent handling assistance, the Qianhai Court can generate mediation forms and summary judgements with one click which makes the dispute resolution mechanism more convenient and efficient. The Qianhai Court establishes a public legal service platform for the “Belt and Road”, which provides free online legal information services for the domestic and overseas public and parties, and it now covers the laws and regulations, relevant cases and references of 19 countries and regions including South-East Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Central and Eastern Europe along the line of “One Belt One Road”, it helps commercial subjects understand and become familiar with the legal environment of proposed investment countries and regions and provides online consultation services from over a thousand legal experts. The Qianhai Court also guides the parties to choose proper dispute resolutions so as to realise the informatisation and facilitation of international commercial dispute resolutions and to meet the multiple demands of the parties in resolving disputes.
5. Promoting the Construction of an Internationalised, Modernised, First-class Court and Effectively Enhancing International and Inter-regional Judicial Credibility
5.1 Promoting the normalisation, specialisation and professionalisation of the judicial team with the goal of building an elite judicial team
5.1.1 Taking the judge as the core to build a new type of trial team. The Qianhai Court focuses on the optimisation of trial resources and the establishment of a horizontal trial structure with no business tribunal. A trial team is created around a presiding judge as per the following: 1 judge, 2 full-time assistants, N part-time assistants and intern assistants and 1 court clerk. The Qianhai Court standardises the construction and operation of trial teams, optimises the construction of trial teams, strengthens the subject status of judges, clarifies the duties of judges, judicial assistants and court clerks, optimises the judge’s autonomy in the management of trial teams, gives judges the right to assign work to the trial team, to manage the process and quality of cases and to provide suggestions on the rewards and punishments for trial team members, forming an autonomous case management unit that self-manages, independently operations, effectively collaborates and supervises in an orderly manner The Qianhai Court formulates the work guidelines for all types of judicial personnel, implements the classified management and separated development of judicial assistants, judicial police, court clerks and other personnel, and promotes the specialisation and professionalisation of judicial auxiliary teams.
5.1.2 Systematically upgrading the cultivation mechanism for elite judges through high-standard selection and high-quality training.The Qianhai Court establishes a high standard selection mechanism for judges, and the ranks of judges in the Qianhai Court are higher than those of other basic-level courts. The Court President is a Level II senior judge, the Court Vice-President is a Level III senior judge, and other judges are Level III and above. The Qianhai Court establishes a systematic judicial training mechanism and formulates the Cultivation and Development Plan of the Elite Judicial Team in the Qianhai Court. The court organises various legal training, key research, academic seminars and other events, achieving good results. The court formulates work guidelines such as the Guidelines for the Conduct of Judges and the Handbook for Judicial Assistant work to regulate the conduct of judicial officers and establish a fair, honest and authoritative judicial image. The Qianhai Court also establishes systems of judicial personnel quotas with the combination of relatively fixed and dynamic adjustments. The Qianhai Court formulates the Method for the Evaluation of Judges, to implement a system of assessing the performance of judges. The court implements the municipal level unified administering of personnel and property, and established an independent compensation system that corresponds to the ranks of judges to comprehensively enhance the level of job security for judicial personnel.
5.1.3 Establishing a Hong Kong assessor system and Hong Kong mediator system on the basis of the close cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
In order to enhance level of expertise, democratic character, and cultural identity in the resolution of disputes involving Hong Kong affairs, the Qianhai Court established a Hong Kong assessor and Hong Kong mediator system. The Hong Kong assessor s and mediators are generally experts in various professions, providing relevant legal opinions within their areas of expertise, effectively ascertaining the laws in Hong Kong and related nations and regions and offering professional advice, so the court gives full play to the advantages in professional knowledge and cultural background of people’s assessors of Hong Kong and Hong Kong mediators. For Hong Kong-related cases involving industry trading practices, professional development norms, the application of Hong Kong laws and rules for Hong Kong evidence identification, the Qianhai Court prioritises choosing people’s assessors of Hong Kong. people’s assessors of Hong Kong independently exercise the right to vote on the facts establishment and the application of law. According to the development requirements of the international modern service industry, a certain proportion of Hong Kong mediators have been appointed in finance, internet, modern logistics and other industries, and the court has established a systematic and comprehensive training, communication and guarantee mechanism for Hong Kong mediators.
5.2 Taking the construction of intelligent courts as a guide to modernise the trial system and trial capabilities
5.2.1 Accelerating the establishment of networked courts with the goal of efficient and convenient judicial demand.
The Qianhai Court establishes a digital litigation archive system based on the technology of synchro-case creation and OCR functionality. The Qianhai Court initially establishes a comprehensive archive management system, an electronic reading room system and electronic litigation archive consulting platform. The Qianhai Court establishes an “Electronic Signature” system based on the model of trial responsibility, which facilitates judges to complete the document review, signing and other operations on the internet or through mobile terminals. The Qianhai Court actively develops the system of the trial, monitoring and supervision of cases based on intelligent early-warning and intelligent service, which means the whole case hearing process is brought online, the whole process is traceable and the improvement of the effectiveness of trial supervision and management. The Qianhai Court establishes a trial support system aided by intelligent speech recognition technology, and has already implemented real-time court video recording and the full coverage of on-line live broadcasting of court trials.
5.2.2 Promoting judicial fairness through judicial publicity and accelerating the establishment of transparent courts.
The Qianhai Court will simultaneously promote judicial publicity through four main platforms, a web portal, a mobile app, litigation service self-help terminals and a WeChat public platform, to publicise trial procedures, written judgements, enforcement information and the on-line live broadcasting of court trials. The Qianhai Court establishes a humanised “one-stop” litigation service centre that integrates litigation guidance, case docketing and registration, litigation guidance and judicial publicity. The Qianhai Court comprehensively builds an online and offline litigation service centre that provides parties with efficient and convenient litigation services such as lawsuit guidance, case filing, and consultation. The Qianhai Court further strengthens litigation guidance, publishes 50 litigation notes on full disclosure reform measures and litigation rights and obligations both in Chinese and English and elevates the publicity and convenience of court services. Taking the construction of an electronic platform as the turning point, the Qianhai Court simultaneously built an online dispute resolution system and an online court mediation platform to meet the needs of the parties to solve disputes efficiently and conveniently. The Qiaqnhai court built a new intensive judicial publicity model including online litigation services, public gallery reservation, live broadcasting of court trials, typical cases and the publishing of relevant information. Judicial publicity has been maintained through the website, press briefings and “Court Open Days”. The Qianhai Court has held 10 press briefings concerning major judicial reform projects and trials.
5.2.3 Accelerating the establishment of intelligent courts based on the intelligent development and application of legal data.
The Qianhai Court establishes an auxiliary platform for judges in hearing cases based on big data intelligent services to ensure the intelligent push and key development for similar cases, legal provisions, parties’ information, public opinion, calculating tools and other supporting information. The Qianhai Court promotes the unification of judicial standards to improve judicial quality and effectiveness. The court establishes judicial research auxiliary system with being problem-oriented as its goal, making full use of China Judgements Online, Judicial Case Guidance, Faxin Platform, and the resources of Data Centre in the Qianhai Court, to help the trial management department and judicial research personnel make empirical analysis on similar cases and predict the potential problems. The Qianhai court establishes a platform for judicial data analysis, based on the intelligent analysis of data resources, which automatically generates a variety of data reports and graphical lists, providing big data support for leadership decisions and judicial management. The Qianhai Court establishes an auxiliary platform for judges’ performance evaluation based on a scientific quantitative system to implement the automatic evaluation of judges’ performance. The court establishes a multi-dimensional and comprehensive evaluation system for the quality and effectiveness of trials, which has been helpful for case review, indicator inquiry and analysis.
5.3 Expanding the multi-channel, multi-form and specialisation of the external communication mechanism and building a demonstration area for the socialist rule of law.
5.3.1 Establishing an international judicial information communication and cooperation mechanism.
In order to adhere to the strategy of “going out”, broaden international perspectives and learn from different judicial systems from various countries, the Qianhai Court enhances its identification of the rule of law and the international community’s understanding of China’s judiciary, thus promoting mutual trust in the rule of law. The Qianhai Court strengthens the exchanges and cooperation between the judicial institutions in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, deepens the doctrine of precedent of Hong Kong Judiciary and draws lessons from the pre-trial procedures and diversified dispute resolution mechanisms in Hong Kong civil litigation. In 2017, judicial personnel in the Qianhai Court were twice organised to go to Hong Kong to carry out judicial professional exchanges, striving to achieve a common vision of consolidating and expanding cooperative development with legal professionals in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Following the strategy of “bringing in”, the Qianhai Court received many professionals including Sir Geoffrey Vos (Chancellor of the British High Court), Mark Beer (Chief Executive of the Dubai International Financial Centre’s Dispute Resolution Authority), The Honourable Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li (Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal), Justice Sam Hou Fair (President of the Court of Final Appeal of Macao), The Honourable Mr Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung CJHC (Chief Judge of the High Court of Hong Kong), The Honourable Andrew Li Kwok-nang (former Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal) , which fully reflects the effectiveness of constructing demonstration areas for China’s rule of law and for the socialist rule of law. The Qianhai Court strengthens international and inter-regional judicial assistance to actively explore and promote mutual recognition and enforcement of judicial decisions between China's Hong Kong and Chinese mainland to provide efficient and convenient judicial relief for the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese and foreign parties concerned.
5.3.2 Creating an international Think Tank.
In accordance with the needs of foreign commercial trials and other work, the Qianhai Court established a think tank of foreign commercial trial experts through inviting experts in the fields of Chinese and foreign law, finance, international trade and international investment, which provides professional consultation and demonstration for court cases, judicial reform and other work. Experts in the Think Tank may act as expert assessors and mediators, and those who meet the conditions of ascertaining and applying extraterritorial laws shall be entrusted to participate in the investigation of extraterritorial laws in foreign commercial cases. According to the work priorities, working needs and the expertise of experts in the Think Tank in foreign-related commercial trial theoretical study, experts can jointly participate in research subjects, effectively playing the roles of supporters, participants, and decision-making consultants in foreign-related commercial trials.
5.3.3 Establishing an international communication platform -- “Qianhai Intelligent Legal Forum”.
The Qianhai Court actively relies on the Supreme Court’s legal ascertainment “one Centre, two Bases”, namely the Legal Ascertaining Research Centre of China Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Foreign Countries, Legal Ascertaining Research Base of the Supreme Courts in China Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Foreign Countries and Legal Ascertaining Base of the Supreme Courts in China Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Foreign Countries. The Qianhai Court establishes the “Qianhai Legal Intelligence Forum” to attract legal intelligence, promote cross-border legal exchanges and cooperation, and provide services and safeguards for the construction of the “Belt and Road” and free trade zones. With the theme of “Innovative Development and Construction of a Legal Business Environment”, the first session of “Qianhai Legal Intelligence Forum” was held to actively promote cross-border cooperation and exchange from the aspect of law ascertainment under the “Belt and Road”. The second session of “Qianhai Legal Intelligence Forum was held with the theme of the “Belt and Road” Investment in ASEAN: Legal Policy and Dispute Resolution”. The Forum has become a positive platform for building a mutually beneficial, inclusive, fair and efficient legal environment for business.
Conclusion
Next, the Qianhai Court will be guided by Xi jinping’s Socialist ideology with Chinese characteristics, and deeply implement the overall requirements of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on “deepening the comprehensive reform of the judicial system, fully implementing the judicial responsibility system, and striving to make the people feel fair and just in every judicial case”.
the Qianhai Court will further strengthen trial functions of foreign-related, and improve reform of trial mechanism of FHMT-related commercial cases, and build a fair, convenient, alternative, economic and efficient, and mechanisms of international commercial dispute. Also, the Qianhai Court will further give full play to the role of the judiciary in serving the country’s new pattern of all-round opening up and ensuring the construction of the Belt and Road as well as Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay Area and the free trade zones. The Qianhai Court will continue to deepen the judicial exchanges with Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and foreign countries, and promote more professional cooperation with the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions and other countries in the judicial field to enhance the sense of cultural identity, improve judicial mutual trust and mutual assistance, and fully demonstrate China’s judicial authority and the rule of law image.
