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Chinese courts accept more administrative lawsuits

Xinhua, November 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chinese courts are now accepting more administrative lawsuits thanks to a revised law that enables citizens to sue the government more easily, among other reasons, China's top judge said on Monday.

Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court, made the remarks when delivering a report at the bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress.

In May, the first month the revised Administrative Procedure Law came into effect, courts nationwide received 26,000 administrative cases, a 221 percent surge year on year, said Zhou. In the first nine months, around 400,000 such cases were reported, a 47.6 percent increase from the same period last year.

Zhou said the surge was also a result of the top court's implementation of a newly established registration system, which requires courts to accept any legitimate lawsuits when they are filed.

In the past, many people had troubles having their lawsuits against the government accepted into court and were forced to petition upper-level government departments instead.

Zhou said the judicial system must strengthen its protection of citizens, ranging from traditional land expropriation and housing demolition disputes to environmental and labor-related cases.

A shortage of professional judges is a major problem. The 8,878 administrative law judges currently spread throughout the country cannot even meet minimum needs, Zhou said.

Those who have more than 10 years of experience in administrative lawsuits account for only 22.3 percent of the total, he said.

To cope with the rise of new cases, the top court issued a circular earlier this month, urging courts at all levels to analyze prominent problems and give more support to judges in order to better handle case work.

"Time spent on meetings, research, business trips and training not relevant to handling cases should be cut back to make sure judges have more time and energy for cases," it said.

It also called for senior judges to play a leading role in cracking complicated cases. Certain procedures stipulated by law, such as fast-track rules and summary procedures, should be utilized to improve trial efficiency, it said. Endi