The Supreme People's Court (SPC) released the Rules of Online Mediation of the People's Court on Dec 31, 2021.

This is China's first judicial interpretation, which took effect on Jan 1, to guide courts around the country to carry out online mediations.

The document makes stipulations for online mediations carried out through mediation platform of the people's court. clarifying the definition, application scope, organizations and personnel, and procedures of online mediations.

Online mediations, according to the rules, can be applied to civil disputes, administrative disputes, enforcement cases, and some criminal cases, covering all the main types of cases.

The rules stipulate that online mediations can be conducted entirely online or partially online, with full respect for the wishes of the parties involved.

This is another landmark judicial interpretation issued by the SPC after the Rules of Online Litigation of the People's Court. It's of great significance in improving the dispute resolution system with distinctive Chinese characteristics, said Qian Xiaochen, director of the Case Filing Tribunal, SPC.

It is a milestone in the process of building a new model of internet justice with Chinese characteristics that can lead the world and achieving a higher level of digital justice, Qian said.

In recent years, courts nationwide have jointly built a one-stop diversified dispute resolution and litigation service system,and promoted the mediation platform of the people's court.

By the end of 2021, courts nationwide had dealt wih 24.37 million cases through online mediations, with an average annual growth rate of 85.6 percent. In 2021, the number of online mediation cases exceeded 10 million, with 6,045,500 cases being successfully mediated in pre-litigation. The proportion of online audio and video mediation cases increased from 0.17 percent in 2018 to 27.45 percent now.

Currently, there are 61,000 mediation organizations and 254,000 mediators working through the mediation platform of the people's court, with an average of 43,000 disputes mediated on the platform every working day, and 50 cases successfully resolved every minute in pre-litigation, Qian said.