Chinese court unveils 23 reform measures
( 2003-08-26 10:00) (Xinhua)
The Supreme People's Court of
China unveiled 23 reform measures aimed at improving the efficiency of the
Chinese court system at a symposium held in Beijing from Sunday to Monday.
The Supreme People's Court will clear the backlog of cases by the end of
September while subordinate courts will finish by the end of November. In the
future, there will be no more detention in excess of the legally permitted
period.
Excessive periods of detention, attributed to poor efficiency of courts and
sometimes personal factors, has drawn harsh public criticism in China over
recent years.
Courts across China hear more than six million cases every year but many were
outside the prescribed time period set by the Supreme People's Court, according
to statistics released at the symposium, attended by presidents of provincial
higher people's courts.
At the symposium, the Supreme People's Court also urged the stepping up of
mediation efforts, which it said was an effective and low-cost approach to
address the piling up of lawsuits.
According to the symposium, 76.7 percent of cases received mediation in 1989
while the ratio dropped to 30.78 percent in 2001.
The package of reform measures also included answering complaints in the set
time and soliciting public views on major interpretations of the
law.
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