Judicial transparency report shows verdict openness needs improvement

Making achievements in judicial transparency, China's top judge asked courts at all levels to improve on standards of verdict openness, calling for legal analysis before the release of information.

Chinese courts have been ordered to put their verdicts online since 2013, aiming to make legal searches convenient and also to improve judicial transparency, "but some openness in some courts were found selective and far from enough," said Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court.

Zhou made the comment in a report on judicial transparency on Saturday, which was submitted to Standing Committee of National People's Congress, China's top legislative body.

By Oct 16, more than 21.8 million verdicts were disclosed to the public, according to the report.

The website used for announcing verdicts made by the top court has also received more than 3.1 billion visits so far, of which, more than 800 million were from overseas, covering more than 200 countries and regions.

But verdict openness in a few courts is too simple and do not explain the laws well, and some courts provide complicated procedures in work transparency, "which are the challenges and problems needed to overcome urgently," Zhou said.

Also, announcing the verdicts without legal analysis and those who put all kinds of verdicts online are not encouraged, as they are not good for litigants to understand laws and can harm the privacy of some people, the report said.

In addition, some courts are short of judicial officers and money to keep up with the platform, which needs improvement, the report said.

In the last three years, Chinese courts have made great efforts to make their work more transparent, "in a bid to increase judicial credibility and keep the justice in this way," said Zhou, but adding the current problems and challenges still need to be worked on by every court.

As opening verdicts to the public, the top court also established a website to disclose information of those declining to comply with judgments in 2013. By Oct 16, defaulters' information in a total of 5.44 million cases has been revealed on the platform and 510,000 defaulters have implemented verdicts under the pressure, it said.

To provide more convenience for litigants to make lawsuits and people to understand court work, more than 3,200 courts nationwide have opened micro-blogging and WeChat accounts, hoping to offer court news to the public and to receive public supervision, it added.