The main organ of Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court, which is designated for dealing with commercial cases and citywide cases involving Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as foreign matters, moved into the newly built Qianhai Justice Center on Nov. 6, aiming to bring more convenience to litigants.
Located in the Qianwan area, the building is at the intersection of Linhai Boulevard and Gongzheng Street. Featuring the image of a scale, the building had its foundation laid in 2014 and was completed in August.
With the aim of providing one-stop services to the public, the building was designed to include several functional areas, such as courtrooms, a service center for litigation, a dispute resolution center, other judicial service rooms and an exhibition hall.
The court started to receive cases in February 2015. To date, it has heard 38,030 cases, among which 7,569 involved Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan or foreign parties.
It has employed 133 staff members, 25 of whom are judges.
As a pilot court that has set up a Hong Kong people’s assessor system and an international mediation mechanism, the court has appointed 32 Hong Kong professionals as assessors to deal with 401 cases and has invited 77 mediators from the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas to help resolve 558 disputes.
In recent years, the court has carried out many reforms regarding various litigation services and the establishment of a dispute resolution platform and mechanism.
For instance, the court’s service center for litigation has combined counseling, file searching, judge appointment and filing together to enhance the efficiency for litigants.
It has set up a desk to offering services to litigants involving Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign parties.
The court also provides machines that offer bilingual services for litigants for guidance and to deal with information searching.
In addition, litigants can also file a case and search information online. They can also take advantage of the “Green Channel” to save time and avoid complicated administrative procedures.
The Belt and Road International Commercial Court-connected Mediation Center of Qianhai was also founded by the court to settle disputes involving parties from various countries and regions and make a mediation system for the Greater Bay Area.
Yang Wanming, vice president of the Supreme People’s Court, Gong Jiali, president of the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province, Tian Fu, director of the Authority of Qianhai & Shekou Pilot Free Trade Area, and Wan Guoying, president of Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, conducted research at the new building Nov. 6.
