Organic Law of the People's Courts of the People's Republic of China

catalogue

Chapter I General provisions

Chapter II Establishment, functions and Powers of the People's Courts

Chapter III Judicial Organization of the People's Courts

Chapter IV Composition of the People's Courts

Chapter V Protection for the exercise of functions and powers by the People's Courts

Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution with a view to regulating the establishment, organization, functions and powers of the people's courts and ensuring that the people's courts perform their duties according to law.

Article 2 The people's courts are the judicial organs of the State.

By trying criminal cases, civil cases, administrative cases and other cases prescribed by law, the people's courts punish crimes, protect innocent persons from criminal prosecution, resolve civil and administrative disputes, protect the lawful rights and interests of individuals and organizations, supervise administrative organs in exercising their functions and powers according to law, safeguard national security and social order, and safeguard social fairness and justice. We will safeguard the unity, dignity and authority of the national legal system and ensure the smooth progress of the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Article 3 The people's courts are established in accordance with the Constitution, laws and the decisions of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Article 4 The people's courts shall exercise judicial power independently in accordance with the provisions of the law and shall be free from interference by administrative organs, public organizations or individuals.

Article 5 The people's courts shall be equal in the application of the law in the trial of cases, shall not allow any organization or individual to have the privilege of exceeding the law, and shall prohibit any form of discrimination.

Article 6 The people's courts shall uphold judicial justice, take facts as the basis and the law as the criterion, observe legal procedures, protect the litigation rights and other lawful rights and interests of individuals and organizations in accordance with the law, and respect and protect human rights.

Article 7 Except as otherwise provided by law, the people's courts shall practice judicial openness.

Article 8 The people's courts shall practice the judicial responsibility system and establish a sound judicial power operation mechanism with unified powers and responsibilities.

Article 9 The Supreme People's Court is responsible and reports on its work to the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee. The local people's courts at various levels are responsible and report on their work to the people's congresses at the corresponding levels and their standing committees.

The people's congresses at various levels and their standing committees shall exercise supervision over the work of the people's courts at the corresponding levels.

Article 10 The Supreme People's Court is the highest judicial organ.

The Supreme People's Court supervises the judicial work of the local people's courts at various levels and the special people's courts, and the people's courts at higher levels supervise the judicial work of the people's courts at lower levels.

Article 11 The people's courts shall accept supervision by the people and guarantee the people's right to be informed, to participate in and to supervise the work of the people's courts in accordance with the law.

Chapter II Establishment, functions and Powers of the People's Courts

Article 12 The people's courts shall be divided into:

(1) The Supreme People's Court;

(2) Local people's courts at various levels;

(3) Special people's courts.

Article 13 Local people's courts at various levels are divided into higher people's courts, intermediate people's courts and basic people's courts.

Article 14 The organization, jurisdiction of cases and appointment and removal of judges of the people's courts established in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps shall be governed by the relevant provisions of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Article 15 The special people's courts shall include military courts, maritime courts, intellectual property courts, financial courts, etc.

The establishment, organization, functions and powers of the special people's courts and the appointment and removal of judges shall be prescribed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Article 16 The Supreme People's Court shall try the following cases:

(1) cases of first instance under which the law provides for its jurisdiction and which it considers should be under its jurisdiction;

(2) cases of appeal and protest against judgments and orders of higher people's courts;

(3) cases of appeal or protest filed in accordance with the provisions of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress;

(4) cases of retrial initiated in accordance with trial supervision procedures;

(5) Death penalty cases reported to the higher People's Court for approval.

Article 17 A death sentence shall be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for approval, except where it is decided by the Supreme People's Court according to law.

Article 18 The Supreme People's Court may interpret questions concerning the specific application of law in judicial work.

The Supreme People's Court may issue guiding cases.

Article 19 The Supreme People's Court may establish circuit tribunals to try cases determined by the Supreme People's Court according to law.

Circuit courts are an integral part of the Supreme People's Court. The judgments and rulings of the circuit court are those of the Supreme People's Court.

Article 20 The higher people's courts shall include:

(1) The Provincial High People's Court;

(2) The Higher People's Court of the autonomous Region;

(3) Higher People's Courts directly under the Central Government.

Article 21 The higher People's Court shall try the following cases:

(1) cases of first instance under its jurisdiction as prescribed by law;

(2) cases of first instance submitted for trial by people's courts at lower levels;

(3) cases of first instance over which the Supreme People's Court has designated jurisdiction;

(4) Appeals and protests against judgments and orders of intermediate people's courts;

(5) cases of retrial initiated in accordance with trial supervision procedures;

(6) Death penalty cases submitted for review by the Intermediate People's Court.

Article 22 Intermediate people's courts shall include:

(1) the intermediate people's courts of the cities under the jurisdiction of provinces and autonomous regions;

(2) Intermediate people's courts established in municipalities directly under the Central Government;

(3) the Intermediate People's Court of Autonomous Prefecture;

(4) Intermediate people's courts established by district in provinces and autonomous regions.

Article 23 The Intermediate People's courts shall try the following cases:

(1) cases of first instance under its jurisdiction as prescribed by law;

(2) cases of first instance submitted for trial by the basic people's courts;

(3) cases of first instance over which the people's court at a higher level has designated jurisdiction;

(4) cases of appeal and protest against judgments and orders of basic people's courts;

(5) Retrial cases brought in accordance with trial supervision procedures.

Article 24 Basic people's courts shall include:

(1) the people's courts of counties and autonomous counties;

(2) The people's courts of cities not divided into districts;

(3) People's courts of municipal districts.

Article 25 The basic people's courts shall try cases of first instance, except as otherwise provided by law.

The basic level people's courts shall give operational guidance to the mediation work of the people's mediation committees.

Article 26 The basic people's court may establish a number of people's courts in light of the region, population and case situation.

The people's court is an integral part of the basic people's court. The judgments and rulings of the people's courts are the judgments and rulings of the basic people's courts.

Article 27 The people's courts may, in light of the needs of their judicial work, establish necessary professional trial chambers. Intermediate people's courts and basic people's courts with fewer judges may have comprehensive tribunals or no tribunals at all.

The people's court may, as required for judicial work, set up comprehensive operational organs. Intermediate people's courts and basic people's courts with fewer judges may not have integrated operational organs.

Article 28 A people's court may, in light of the needs of its work, establish necessary auxiliary judicial organs and administrative organs.

Chapter III Judicial Organization of the People's Courts

Article 29 Cases in the people's courts shall be tried by collegial panels or by a single judge.

The scope of cases to be heard by collegial panels and judges alone shall be prescribed by law.

Article 30 A collegial panel shall be composed of judges, or judges and people's assessors, with an odd number of three or more members.

The collegial panel is chaired by a judge. When the president or the president participates in the trial of a case, he or she shall be the presiding judge.

The presiding judge presides over the trial, organizes the case review, and has equal rights with other members of the collegial panel in the case review.

Article 31 A collegial panel reviewing a case shall make a decision in accordance with the opinions of the majority, and the opinions of the minority shall be recorded. The record of the case shall be signed by all the members of the collegial panel.

Article 32 A judgment document formed by a collegial panel or a single judge in a case shall be signed by a member of the collegial panel or a single judge and issued by the people's court.

Article 33 When a collegial panel tries a case, the judge shall be responsible for the finding of facts and the application of law in the case; A judge alone tries a case, and a judge alone is responsible for the fact finding and the application of law in a case.

The people's court shall strengthen internal supervision, and if there are illegal cases in the trial activities, it shall promptly investigate and verify them, and handle the cases according to law.

Article 34 People's assessors shall participate in the trial of cases by a collegial panel in accordance with the law.

Article 35 People's courts at or above the intermediate level shall establish compensation committees to try cases of state compensation according to law.

The Compensation Commission shall be composed of more than three judges and shall be composed of an odd number of judges who shall make decisions by majority opinion.

Article 36 The people's courts at various levels shall establish judicial committees. The Judicial Committee shall be composed of the President, the Vice President and a number of senior judges, and shall have an odd number of members.

The judicial committee meetings are divided into plenary meetings and professional committee meetings.

According to the needs of trial work, intermediate people's courts or above may convene meetings of specialized committees for criminal trial and civil administrative trial in accordance with the specialties and division of work of the members of the judicial committees.

Article 37 The judicial committee shall perform the following functions:

(1) Summarizing experience in judicial work;

(2) To discuss and decide on the application of law in major, difficult and complex cases;

(3) To discuss and decide whether the legally effective judgments, rulings and conciliation documents of the Court should be retried;

(4) To discuss and decide on other major issues related to judicial work.

The interpretation by the Supreme People's Court of questions relating to the specific application of law in judicial work shall be discussed and adopted by the plenary session of the Judicial Committee; The promulgation of guiding cases may be discussed and approved by the professional committee of the judicial committee.

Article 38 When a judicial committee holds a plenary meeting and a meeting of a professional committee, more than half of its members shall attend the meeting.

The meeting of the judicial committee shall be presided over by the president or the vice president entrusted by the president. The judicial committee shall practice democratic centralism.

When the judicial committee holds a meeting, the chief procurator of the people's procuratorate at the same level or the deputy chief procurator entrusted by the chief procurator may attend as non-voting delegates.

Article 39 If the collegial panel considers that a case needs to be referred to the judicial committee for discussion and decision, the presiding judge shall make an application and the president shall approve it.

The judicial committee discusses the case, the collegial panel is responsible for the facts reported by it, and the members of the judicial committee are responsible for their own opinions and votes. The collegial panel shall implement the decision of the judicial committee.

The decision of the judicial committee to discuss the case and the reasons thereof shall be made public in the judgment document, except for those not made public as provided for by law.

Chapter IV Composition of the People's Courts

Article 40 The judicial personnel of a people's court shall be composed of the president, vice-presidents, members of the judicial committee, judges and other personnel.

Article 41 The president of a people's court shall be responsible for the overall work of the court, supervise the judicial work of the court and administer the administrative affairs of the court. The vice president of the people's court shall assist the president in his work.

Article 42 The President of the Supreme People's Court shall be elected by the National People's Congress; the Vice-presidents, members of the judicial committee, the President, the vice-presidents and judges shall be appointed or removed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress upon the proposal of the President.

The President and vice presidents of the circuit courts of the Supreme People's Court shall be appointed or removed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress upon the proposal of the President of the Supreme People's Court.

Article 43 The president of a local people's court at various levels shall be elected by the people's congress at the corresponding level; the vice-presidents, members of the judicial committee, presidents, vice-presidents and judges shall be appointed or removed by the Standing Committee of the people's congress at the corresponding level upon the proposal of the president.

The presidents of the intermediate people's courts established by region in a province or autonomous region or directly under the Central Government shall be appointed or removed by the Standing Committee of the people's Congress of the province, autonomous region or directly under the Central Government on the basis of nomination by the meeting of the directors. The vice-presidents, members of the judicial committee, the President, the vice-presidents and judges shall be appointed or removed by the president of the higher people's court upon request of the Standing Committee of the people's Congress of the province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government.

Article 44 The term of office of the President of a people's court shall be the same as the term of office of the people's Congress that creates him.

The people's congresses at all levels have the power to recall the president of the people's court elected by them. When a local people's congress is not in session, if the Standing committee of the people's Congress at the corresponding level considers it necessary to remove and replace the president of a people's court, it shall report to the Standing Committee of the people's Congress at a higher level for approval.

Article 45 The judges, judicial auxiliary personnel and judicial administrative personnel of the people's courts shall be administered by classification.

Article 46 Judges shall have a post system. The number of judges is determined according to factors such as the number of cases, economic and social development, population size and the trial level of the people's court.

The posts of judges of the Supreme People's Court shall be determined by the Supreme People's Court in consultation with relevant departments. The number of judges in local people's courts at various levels shall be controlled and dynamically managed in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

Article 47 Judges shall be elected from among persons who have obtained legal professional qualifications and meet other conditions prescribed by law. A newly appointed judge shall be examined for professional competence by the judge selection Committee. Judges of higher people's courts are generally selected from judges of lower people's courts.

The Dean shall have legal expertise and legal professional experience. The vice-presidents and members of the judicial committee shall be selected from among judges, procurators or other qualified persons.

The duties, administration and security of judges shall be governed by the Law of the People's Republic of China on Judges.

Article 48 The judicial assistants of the people's courts shall, under the guidance of judges, be responsible for judicial auxiliary matters such as reviewing case materials and drafting legal documents.

A judge assistant who meets the qualifications for serving as a judge may be appointed as a judge in accordance with the procedure for appointment and removal of judges after being selected.

Article 49 The court clerk of the people's court shall be responsible for trial auxiliary matters such as court hearing records.

Article 50 The judicial police of the people's courts shall be responsible for police matters such as courtroom security, personnel escort and custody.

The judicial police shall be administered in accordance with the People's Police Law of the People's Republic of China.

Article 51 People's courts may, in light of the needs of trial work, appoint judicial technicians to be responsible for matters related to trial work.

Chapter V Protection for the exercise of functions and powers by the People's Courts

Article 52 No unit or individual may require a judge to engage in affairs beyond the scope of statutory duties.

For leading cadres and other interference in judicial activities, interference in the handling of specific cases, or internal personnel of the people's court to interfere with the situation of the case, case-handling personnel shall comprehensively and truthfully record and report; Where there is a violation of law or discipline, the relevant organ shall investigate the responsibility of the perpetrator according to the seriousness of the circumstances.

Article 53 For judgments, rulings and other effective legal documents made by people's courts, obligors shall perform them according to law; Those who refuse to perform shall be investigated for legal responsibility according to law.

Article 54 The people's court shall take necessary measures to maintain court order and judicial authority. Any illegal or criminal act that obstructs the people's court from exercising its functions and powers according to law shall be investigated for legal responsibility according to law.

Article 55 The people's courts shall implement a training system in which judges, judicial auxiliary personnel and judicial administrative personnel shall receive theoretical and professional training.

Article 56 The staffing of the people's courts shall be subject to special management.

Article 57 The funds of the people's courts shall be included in the financial budget in accordance with the principle of division of powers to ensure the needs of judicial work.

Article 58 People's courts shall strengthen the construction of information technology, use modern information technology, promote judicial openness and improve work efficiency.

Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

Article 59 This Law shall come into force as of January 1, 2019.