Top court seeks judicial transparency(2)

The 2012 work report's edition in English can be bought at bookstores, while the top court has begun to draft a new one, introducing court work in 2013.

"We'll do the English work report every year, hoping it can be posted at the end of March the following year," Hu said.

The top court has sent some copies of the English-language report to foreign embassies in China and the response has been warm, Liu said.

Yang Lin, a Beijinglawyer specializing in international cases, said she will buy some of the reports and place them in her office as an introduction to Chinese judicial affairs.

Such documents could be useful when talking to foreign clients who want to invest or work in China, Yang said.

She said she hopes the court will issue more documents in English covering different legal sectors or typical lawsuits, as most foreign clients care more about their own disputes than the Chinese judicial system in general.

Translation difficulties

The launch of the English-language version was not easy.

Work on it took four experienced translators from the China Foreign Language Publishing Administration almost a year. The administration is also responsible for translating documents from other government authorities, according to the top court.

"It's hard for us to translate these legal articles with Chinese characteristics," said Wang Mingjie, one of the translators with more than 40 years' experience.

Liu Ze said the court initially wanted the translators to complete translation of nearly 40,000 Chinese words within two months.

"But we never expected this to be suspended for more than six months," Liu said.

The report was then split into four sections, with each revised at least 10 times by the translators, he said.

For the translation of every judicial term, judges in charge of the Chinese-language report at the top court provided the translators with a written-text explanation "which was about 80,000 words, more than twice the number in the Chinese edition", Liu said.

For example, he said, the translators asked many times what the term "procuratorial supervision" means, as it has several meanings in English. It generally means that prosecution authorities can supervise police and courts in criminal cases to ensure there is no abuse of power.

Wang said explaining these judicial terms took up most of their time.