China vows to stop officials' interfering in court process

Resist Western-style 'judicial independence,' says supreme court

China's top court vowed to safeguard judicial independence by taking concrete measures to prevent government officials from interfering in court proceedings, according to a five-year reform plan released on Thursday.

Measures to protect individual rights have also been highlighted in the plan, including banning courts trying defendants in prison uniforms, stated the guideline unveiled by the Supreme People's Court (SPC).

The SPC's document outlined 65 legal reform measures in seven areas and set a timetable for each goal, including "preliminarily establishing a socialist judicial system with Chinese characteristics by 2018," in an effort to ensure the judicial independence of courts and maintain judicial credibility, the guideline noted.

The focus of the legal reform is to ensure the courts' fairness and independence with less official interference, He Xiaorong, head of the judicial reform office at the SPC, told a press conference on Thursday.

The guidelines noted that a system will be set up to record officials' instructions, letters and other information that interfere with legal cases. The record will be stored and litigants will be able to check it.

"Strengthening judicial transparency is a crucial step [to avoid such interference]," He said, adding that publishing court verdicts will be an effective way to prevent administrative interference with legal cases.

The guidelines also set requirements for judges' experience and professionalism and promised to form mechanism for punishing judges who violate the rules.

Bi Yuqian, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, applauded the new moves, but he also noted that they may face many challenges in practice.

"It is very difficult to check oral instructions between officials and judges. Moreover, the abuse of power through connections in the legal system still exists in some places, which will be hard to root out any time soon," Bi told the Global Times.

The guideline forbids courts from forcing defendants to wear prison garb, in order to avoid prejudicing legal proceedings. At present, defendants often appear in orange prison uniforms, with their heads shaved.

"The suspects are accused but have not been confirmed as criminals, thus they can't be presented as such," He of the SPC said.

The SPC is working with police and other authorities to implement this measure soon, He added.

By the end of 2016, courts at all levels are expected to have established a system under which all investigation and litigation activities are entirely focused on the trial, according to the guidelines.

Previous litigation activities in China focused on investigation, in which courts made their judgment only based on the evidence or testimony provided by the police, legal experts have long pointed out. Such practice could lead to miscarriages of justice, Bi said.

Trials should be decisive in confirming evidence, establishing facts and reaching fair judgments, a role which they are not yet playing fully, and judicial protection for human rights still needs to be improved, said deputy SPC head Li Shaoping.

The principle of "judging by evidence" must be implemented and the courts must reject any illegally obtained evidence, according to the guidelines. Meanwhile, supervision over the judges must be reinforced to avoid abuses of power and miscarriages of justice.

The top court also emphasizes the leadership of the Communist Party of China in the process of judicial reform, and raised caution over speculations that the reform has anything to do with Western political systems.

A meeting of the SPC Party committee on Wednesday noted that the Western notion of "judicial independence" and "separation of powers" should be rejected.

The meeting added that the influence of the West's erroneous thought and mistaken opinions should be resisted.

"There were some misunderstandings about China's judicial reforms on judicial independence," Chen Weidong, a law professor with the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times. "But this goal is different from the Western notion of judicial independence."

Western-style judicial independence is a political concept that is built on a multi-party system and the "separation of powers," Chen said. "China's judicial independence means that a court can conduct its trials and judgments according to the law, while under the leadership of the CPC."

The fourth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in October 2014 reiterated the leadership of the Party in pursuing "the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics."

China's experience in the past has showed that only the CPC can build a national top-down legal system, Bi said.