China's top court pledged to ensure judges can exercise their judicial power independently without interference from administrative organs, a move that legal experts said would stress again the country's determination to promote judicial justice.
The Supreme People's Court on Tuesday published a document on improving the mechanism to protect judges and their associates in fulfilling their legal duties. It stipulates that when handling cases, judges should not be subject to interference from other government organs, social organizations or individuals, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Judges have the right to refuse to follow requests by any organizations or individuals without a legal mandate or without following due process, the document said.
Moreover, judges are entitled to make complaints against nine types of actions by governmental agencies or staff, including intervention in the judicial process, obstruction of justice and restraint or suppression of the judges' independent expression of opinion.
The document rules that judges could report interference to the country's administrative organs and supervision authorities, and the judges' courts are obliged to provide assistance if they file reports.
"The document aims to solve the long-lasting problem that administrative organs have been trying to interfere in judicial justice. It provides guidance for judges' work and re-stresses the country's determination to promote judicial reform and safeguard judicial independence under the framework of Chinese characteristics," Qin Qianhong, a constitutional law professor at Wuhan University, told the Global Times.
Qin said that some local governments have interfered with and even hindered judicial procedure to protect large local enterprises for the sake of employment, economic development and social stability.
However, he noted that there are some obstacles to putting the document into real practice as it is not a compulsory regulation and lacks specific instructions.
"Some judges may not report [interference] or act to safeguard their rights for fear of any damage to their interpersonal relationships and careers," Qin said.
China has established cross-regional courts and prosecutors offices in Beijing and Shanghai to reduce local government interference in cases when residents sue local governments.
In the past, each district court and procuratorate was responsible for handling cases within the district, and therefore, administrative litigation cases were easily influenced by local authorities, Xinhua reported.
