Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 14 -

The people's courts are the national judicial organs, undertaking the important functions of punishing crimes, protecting the people, resolving disputes, and safeguarding justice. To strengthen trial work in the new era and accelerate the building of a fair, efficient, and authoritative socialist judicial system, the following opinions are put forward.

I. General Requirements

Adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirits of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second and Third Plenary Sessions of the 20th Central Committee, fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, deeply comprehend the decisive significance of the "Two Establishments", strengthen the "Four Consciousnesses", firm the "Four Confidences", and achieve the "Two Maintenances". Adhere to the leadership of the Party, adhere to the people-centered approach, adhere to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, and adhere to the independent and impartial exercise of judicial power in accordance with the law. With promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people's well-being as the starting point and goal, strictly and impartially administer justice, deepen the reform of the judicial system, forge a strong team, promote the improvement of the socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, and provide strong judicial services and guarantees for comprehensively advancing the cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese-style modernization.

II. Adhere to and Strengthen the Party's Leadership over Trial Work

(1) Resolutely implement the Party Central Committee's guidelines, policies, and decisions on trial work. Firmly safeguard the authority and centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, improve the mechanism for implementing the major decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee in judicial organs, strictly implement the system of requesting instructions and reporting on major matters, and ensure that the Party's theories, lines, guidelines, policies, and national laws are correctly and effectively implemented in trial work. Party committees at all levels should strengthen their leadership over trial work, regularly listen to work reports, study and solve major issues, and ensure the implementation of the Party Central Committee's guidelines, policies, and decisions on trial work. Political and legal committees of Party committees at all levels should guide, support, and supervise people's courts in carrying out their work within the scope of their duties as prescribed by the Constitution and laws.

(2) Strengthen the ideological and political construction of judicial organs. Consolidate and expand the achievements of the thematic education on studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, consolidate and deepen the achievements of discipline education, comprehensively strengthen the ideological and theoretical armed forces of people's courts, and take Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law as a regular compulsory course in the theoretical education and political training of people's courts. Enhance confidence, courage, and determination in the socialist judicial system with Chinese characteristics. Adhere to the principle that the Party manages cadres, take political standards as the primary standard for selecting leading cadres, and select and strengthen the leading bodies of people's courts at all levels. In accordance with relevant regulations, do a good job in the assistance management of the Party groups of higher people's courts over the leading bodies of lower people's courts. Strengthen the construction of grass-roots Party organizations in people's courts at all levels, and give full play to the role of grass-roots Party organizations as fighting fortresses. Strengthen the exchange of leading cadres in people's courts and the training and use of outstanding young cadres.

(3) Support people's courts in exercising judicial power independently and impartially in accordance with the law. Party committees at all levels should support people's courts in exercising judicial power independently and impartially in accordance with the law, and strictly implement the system of recording, notifying, and investigating responsibilities for interfering in judicial activities and meddling in the handling of specific cases. Administrative organs at all levels should enhance their awareness and ability of administration according to law and respect judicial authority. People's courts at all levels should consciously accept supervision and exercise judicial power impartially in accordance with the law. Leading cadres at all levels should firmly establish the concept of the rule of law, take the lead in respecting and safeguarding judicial authority, and be good at carrying out work using the thinking and methods of the rule of law.

III. Ensure High-Quality Development and High-Level Security through Strict and Impartial Administration of Justice

(4) Resolutely safeguard national security and social stability. Implement the overall national security concept, implement the national security responsibility system of Party committees (Party groups) and the responsibility system for maintaining social stability, severely punish major and vicious crimes endangering national security and public security, violent terrorism, cult crimes, crimes involving gangsters and evil forces, crimes involving guns and explosives, intentional homicide, drug manufacturing and trafficking, and personal extremism in accordance with the law, and severely punish crimes that are strongly reflected by the people such as telecom and network fraud and cyber violence. Improve the mechanisms for discovering, transferring, handling, and feedback of clues related to duty crimes, "protective umbrellas" of gangsters and evil forces, and other illegal crimes in various cases, and promote the organic connection between discipline enforcement and criminal justice.

(5) Improve the law-based business environment. Severely punish various economic crimes in accordance with the law, severely punish corruption crimes such as embezzlement, job-related embezzlement, bribery, and accepting bribes in accordance with the law, and effectively maintain the order of the socialist market economy. Improve the judicial protection mechanism for property rights, impose the same responsibilities, crimes, and penalties for acts that infringe upon the property rights and legitimate interests of various ownership economies, prevent and correct the use of administrative and criminal means to interfere in economic disputes, and apply property preservation and judicial coercive measures in accordance with the law to avoid adverse impacts on legitimate production and operation. Improve the punitive compensation system in the fields of food and drug safety, intellectual property rights, product defects, and environmental pollution. Improve the mechanism for effectively preventing, legally identifying, and correcting wrong and false cases involving enterprises. Strengthen the regulation of monopolistic and unfair competition behaviors to maintain a fair competition order. Strengthen bankruptcy trial work, promote the improvement of the exit system for market entities, and promote the optimal allocation of resources. Legally hear disputes over the determination of data property rights, market transactions, rights and interests distribution, and interest protection, and promote the efficient circulation and transaction of data elements.

(6) Strengthen financial trial work. Severely punish illegal and criminal acts in the financial field such as market manipulation, insider trading, illegal fund-raising, loan fraud, and money laundering in accordance with the law, strengthen the coordinated governance of illegal intermediary chaos in the financial field, and promote the healthy development of the financial market. Improve the trial rules for financial disputes in emerging fields such as digital currency, mobile payment, internet finance, and cross-border financial asset transactions. Improve the connection mechanism between administrative law enforcement and judicial trials in the financial field.

(7) Strengthen intellectual property trial work. Increase judicial protection for technological innovation and trade secrets in key frontier fields. Give full play to the functional role of intellectual property trials and improve the appeal trial mechanism for intellectual property cases. Improve the connection mechanism between administrative law enforcement and judicial trials in the field of intellectual property rights, and promote comprehensive governance in the field of intellectual property rights.

(8) Strengthen trial work on ecological environment and resources. Severely punish illegal and criminal acts that pollute the environment and damage the ecology in accordance with the law, and comprehensively strengthen judicial protection of the ecological environment. Improve the way of undertaking judicial responsibilities oriented to ecological environment restoration, strictly implement the ecological environment damage compensation system, and promote comprehensive ecological compensation. Strengthen the construction of specialized trial mechanisms for environmental resources. Improve the trial procedures and rules for ecological environment public interest litigation. Promote cross-departmental coordination and linkage, and strengthen the integrated protection of the ecological environment.

(9) Strengthen judicial protection of people's livelihood. Strengthen judicial protection in people's livelihood fields such as family affairs, medical care, elderly care, employment, and consumption to enhance people's well-being. Improve family trial methods such as family investigation, psychological counseling, and post-judgment follow-up assistance, and improve the system of personal safety protection orders. Properly hear cases of medical damage compensation disputes to promote the formation of an equal, harmonious, and mutually trusting doctor-patient relationship. Explore and promote early warning, investigation, and mediation of contradictions and disputes involving the elderly. Legally safeguard equal employment and labor rights, severely punish malicious arrears of wages, promptly realize the winning rights and interests of migrant workers, and improve judicial judgment rules for labor disputes in new employment forms. Legally protect the legitimate land rights and interests of farmers who settle in cities.

(10) Strengthen judicial protection of minors' rights and interests. Strengthen the professional and comprehensive construction of juvenile trials. Implement the principle of the best interests of minors. Severely punish crimes against minors in accordance with the law, and strengthen protection and assistance for minor victims and their families. Do a good job in the source prevention and comprehensive management of juvenile delinquency, carry out special education and special correction education in coordination, and resolutely punish those with deep subjective malignancy, bad circumstances, and serious harm in accordance with the law. Deepen and promote work such as family education guidance, social investigation, and social care. Improve the linkage and coordination mechanism of the "six major protections" for minors: family, school, society, network, government, and judiciary.

(11) Strengthen trial work involving foreign countries, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Strengthen international commercial trial work of the Supreme People's Court and key regions, improve the connection mechanism with international commercial mediation and arbitration, promote the building of a preferred place for international commercial dispute resolution, and promote high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road". Improve judicial trial systems such as parties' lawful agreement on jurisdiction and choice of applicable foreign laws in foreign-related civil legal relations. Strengthen the accurate application of international treaties and international customs, and establish a high-level and professional system for ascertaining foreign laws. Improve maritime trial work, rationally arrange maritime court dispatched tribunals, and strengthen judicial protection of China's maritime rights and interests. Improve judicial measures for counter-sanctions, counter-interference, and counter-"long-arm jurisdiction". Improve the judicial protection mechanism for overseas interests. Strengthen judicial protection of overseas Chinese rights and interests. Strengthen international exchanges and cooperation in the judicial field. Actively participate in the formulation of international rules in fields such as international trade, intellectual property rights, environmental protection, and cyberspace. Improve the cross-strait judicial assistance system with Chinese characteristics. Deepen judicial exchanges and cooperation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, and strengthen rule connection and mechanism docking. Strengthen judicial work involving Taiwan and deepen cross-strait integrated development.

IV. Strengthen the Prevention and Resolution of Contradictions and Disputes

(12) Promote the integration of dispute resolution forces and resources. Adhere to and develop the "Fengqiao Experience" in the new era, under the leadership of Party committees at all levels, strengthen the coordination and linkage between people's courts and government departments and social forces, implement the responsibility for the prevention and resolution of contradictions and disputes, jointly promote the standardized construction of social security comprehensive management centers, improve the connection mechanism between litigation and non-litigation, and improve the work pattern of connection and linkage between people's mediation, administrative mediation, judicial mediation, and industry-specific and professional mediation. People's courts at all levels should strengthen guidance on mediation work, legally support lawyers, mediation organizations, etc. to play a role in front-end dispute resolution, and strengthen and standardize entrusted mediation and pre-litigation mediation.

(13) Strengthen the substantive resolution of administrative disputes. Strengthen the supporting and supervising role of judicial trials in administration according to law, promote administrative organs to improve their ability of administration according to law, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of administrative counterparts. Deepen the reform of hierarchical jurisdiction, centralized jurisdiction, and off-site jurisdiction of administrative cases, optimize the allocation of administrative trial resources, and improve the quality and efficiency of administrative trial work. Do a good job in the organic connection of dispute resolution methods such as administrative mediation, administrative adjudication, administrative reconsideration, and administrative litigation, and give play to the main channel role of administrative reconsideration in resolving administrative disputes.

(14) Strengthen litigation service work. Improve the litigation service platform and build an efficient, convenient, intelligent, and accurate litigation service system. Strengthen the standardization of judicial documents to provide litigation guidance and convenience for the people. Actively promote the construction of online courts and shared courts to facilitate parties to participate in mediation, judicial confirmation, and litigation in different places. Deepen the reform of the circuit court working mechanism, promote the sinking of the trial focus, and give play to the functions of circuit courts in convenient litigation and dispute resolution. Improve the working mechanism for trying cases on the spot.

(15) Strengthen the resolution of litigation-related petitions. Strictly implement the "Regulations on Petition Work" and meet the requirements of legalization of petition work. Adhere to the combination of visits and mediation, with mediation first, and promote the coordination and linkage between mediation work and petition work. Deepen and promote the work of "responding to every letter", and promote the organic combination of receiving visits and handling letters with trial-level supervision, circuit trials, etc. Improve the standards for review of termination and filing of litigation-related petitions, and improve the termination and transfer procedures. Improve the unified platform for litigation-related petitions, and promote the interconnection and sharing of petition data across units. Improve the system of lawyer representation in appeals, improve the legal aid mechanism, and guide parties to appeal in a lawful and rational manner.

V. Deepen the Reform of the Judicial System

(16) Implement and improve the judicial responsibility system. Adhere to the principle of "let those who hear the case judge, and let those who judge be responsible", and refine and improve the handling powers and responsibilities of judicial organizations and the supervision and management responsibilities of presidents and vice presidents of courts. Strengthen and standardize the case-handling work of presidents and vice presidents of courts, and give full play to their exemplary and leading role in case-handling. Strengthen trial supervision and management, and promote presidents and vice presidents of courts to strengthen the quality control of judicial documents in accordance with their statutory duties. Strengthen the construction of the judge disciplinary committee, and improve the system for determining and investigating judicial responsibilities.

(17) Optimize the evaluation system for trial quality and efficiency. Respect judicial laws, adhere to quality first while considering efficiency, improve the index system for trial quality and efficiency management, and promote case management, supervision, and guidance in a coordinated manner. Strictly control the number of assessments for grass-roots courts, improve assessment methods, and reduce the burden of assessments and index pressure.

(18) Improve the systems of trial-level supervision and case guidance. Strengthen the judicial interpretation work of the Supreme People's Court. Improve the systems of case elevation jurisdiction and retrial, and give play to the functions of higher-level courts in unifying the application of laws and preventing local protectionism. Improve the system for solving legal application problems that is connected from top to bottom and standardized and efficient. Optimize the procedures for reviewing civil and administrative retrial applications, explore and promote the separation of complicated and simple cases, and improve the quality and efficiency of retrial application review. Improve the guiding case system and build a high-quality case database of people's courts.

(19) Build an efficient and coordinated functional system of judicial organs. Optimize the establishment and functional allocation of internal institutions of people's courts. Standardize the establishment of specialized people's courts. Deepen the reform of courts such as railway, forestry, and reclamation area courts. Optimize the functional positioning and overall layout of people's tribunals.

(20) Improve the judicial protection mechanism for human rights. Deepen the reform of the criminal procedure system centered on trials, adhere to the rule of law principles such as equality before the law, legality of crimes and punishments, and adaptability of crimes, responsibilities, and punishments, adhere to evidence adjudication and presumption of innocence, improve the systems of witness appearance in court, exclusion of illegal evidence, and second-instance court sessions in criminal cases, and promote the substantialization of court trials. Comprehensively and accurately implement the criminal policy of combining leniency with severity, and legally and standardizedly apply the system of leniency for guilty pleas and punishments to ensure the legality and voluntariness of the defendant's guilty pleas and punishments. Deepen and promote the full coverage of lawyer defense in criminal cases. Improve the system for protecting lawyers' practicing rights. Establish a system for sealing records of minor crimes. Promote the improvement of systems for compulsory measures involving citizens' personal rights and compulsory measures such as seizure, detention, and freezing. Standardize the procedures for handling seized and detained property. Improve the two-way connection system between administrative penalties and criminal penalties. Improve the judicial assistance system. Improve the state compensation system and revise the State Compensation Law.

(21) Deepen the reform of the enforcement system. Deepen the reform of separating judicial power and enforcement power, and improve the national enforcement system. Improve the supervision system for the operation of enforcement power, and strengthen the whole-process supervision of enforcement activities by parties, procuratorial organs, and the public. Improve the work pattern of comprehensive governance of "difficulties in enforcement". Improve the linkage, operation, coordination, and connection mechanism between case filing, trial, and enforcement work.

(22) Deepen and standardize judicial openness. Continue to do a good job in the disclosure of judicial information such as judicial documents, court trials, and trial processes, release judicial trial data regularly, further enrich the forms of disclosure, improve the quality of disclosure, and improve the disclosure system. Improve the system for effectively protecting national information security, citizens' personal information, and enterprises' legitimate rights and interests in judicial openness.

VI. Strengthen Support and Guarantee for Trial Work

(23) Strengthen the construction of digital courts. Build a unified case-handling and office system to realize case-handling and office work in courts across the country on "one network" and one platform. Build and improve the judicial big data database, and establish a mechanism for automatic synchronization, aggregation, integration, and comprehensive application of judicial big data resources of courts at four levels on the premise of compliance with laws and regulations. Promote the work of "total-to-total" data aggregation and sharing among central political and legal units to realize the integration and sharing of relevant data. Strengthen the protection of key information infrastructure and judicial data security, and implement dynamic management of the whole process of judicial data circulation and disclosure. Further expand digital judicial application scenarios, promote intelligent judicial applications, and promote changes in trial procedures, litigation rules, and judicial models with digitalization and intelligence.