Progress in judicial protection of rights

Hear cases involving the environment or resource use to protect citizens' environmental rights. In June 2014, the Supreme People's Court established a tribunal for lawsuits involving the environment and resource use. As of 2015, courts of 24 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) had established 456 tribunals, collegial benches and circuit courts for environment cases. From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded a total of 495,500 such cases. From 2013 to 2015, the Supreme People's Court notified the public of 33 typical environment cases on four occasions, trying to ensure environment and resource laws are properly applied in a comprehensive, correct, and consistent way, and to promote environmental protection on the basis of the law.

Hear administrative cases to safeguard legitimate rights and interests of private parties. From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded 579,000 administrative cases of various types. The courts properly heard administrative proceedings involving house demolitions of high social concern, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of displaced people in accordance with the law. They concluded 32,800 administrative cases involving house demolitions. The system whereby the individual in charge of an administrative agency appears and defends the organ in court in accordance with the law has been improved. In 2014 and 2015, among Jiangsu administrative agencies involved in administrative proceedings, more than 90 percent of those in charge appeared in court. Three consecutive magistrates of Hai'an County People's Government personally appeared in court. For six years, all heads of various administrative organs of this county, when involved in administrative proceedings, appeared in court. Coordination of administrative cases and enforcement of non-litigation administrative cases have been strengthened, helping resolve administrative disputes. Timely feedback on prominent law enforcement problems found in court trials has been provided to administrative agencies to promote law-based administration.

From 2014 to 2015, the Supreme People's Court made known to the public ten cases concerning land acquisition, house demolition and relocation, ten information disclosure cases, ten cases concerning environmental protection, ten cases concerning administrative nonfeasance, and ten administrative cases concerning commercial interests. In so doing, it has regulated administrative law enforcement, and provided uniform criteria for judgment. Safeguard legitimate rights and interests of applicants in state compensation cases.

In 2015, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate jointly issued the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases Regarding Compensation, elaborating on the circumstances under which investigation of criminal liabilities is terminated. The document has helped solve problems for citizens who cannot apply for state compensation due to protracted criminal cases, and played an important role in urging case handling organs to exercise functions according to the law and in protecting the right to state compensation.

From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded a total of 12,300 cases on state compensation. On January 7, 2016, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate brought the public's attention to eight typical criminal cases on state compensation.

Reinforce enforcement of effective judgment to protect legitimate rights and interests of relevant parties. The Supreme People's Court revised Several Provisions on Restricting Extravagant Spending of the Persons Subject to Enforcement, restricting expenditure not necessary for life or business operation by the persons who are included in the list of dishonest persons subject to enforcement. This effort helped set up a public mechanism for penalizing dishonest people.

As of 2015, 3.08 million people subject to enforcement had been included in the list of dishonest persons, 3,577,000 attempts by these people to buy airline tickets had been intercepted, as well as 598,800 attempts to buy soft sleeper tickets and first-class tickets on high-speed trains. From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels received 12,591,400 new cases of application for enforcement, of which 11,906,000 were enforced and concluded. Enforcement of cases relating to essential requirements of daily life has been reinforced. From December 1, 2015 to February 15, 2016, the Supreme People's Court enforced such cases in a centralized way, with focus on nine categories, including recovering payment for labor, migrant workers' wages, alimony, and payment for children's upbringing. As of January 15, 2016, about 60,000 cases had been enforced and concluded, involving sums of about two billion yuan.

Improve community correction work to effectively protect correction subjects' legitimate rights and interests. Administrative organs of justice at all levels have implemented the Opinions on Organizing Social Forces to Participate in Community Correction.

They have covered community correction funds in financial budgets at all levels; encouraged and guided social forces to participate in community correction; tried to solve employment, schooling, social assistance, social security and other issues for correction subjects; strengthened education for and assistance to them through various channels; and directed attention to their psychological treatment. In so doing they have helped them better reintegrate into society.

As of 2015, administrative organs of justice around the country had received a total of 2,702,000 offenders for community correction, among whom 2,004,000 were discharged from correction and 698,000 remained for correction. Only 0.2 percent of offenders committed crimes during the correction period. Altogether 1,339 community correction centers have been established nationwide in counties or districts. There are 24,787 bases for community service, 9,218 bases for education, 8,165 bases for employment, and 672,000 community correction groups. Around the country, 83,000 social workers and 690,000 volunteers are engaged in community correction. Haidian District Community Correction Center of Beijing founded the Zhongtu (Midway) College with five universities. In the college, university teachers provide targeted, classified education for correction subjects. Chaohu Community Correction Center, Anhui province, has established mental health records for correction subjects, and provides consulting services.

Increase legal aid to enable citizens to better enjoy the right to legal aid. A framework of grassroots legal aid has been put in place. More than 3,500 offices have been opened to provide convenient legal aid to the public, and more than 70,000 legal aid work stations have been set up, improving grassroots infrastructure.

Judicial organs have worked to spread the national legal aid information management system, which helps to simplify the process of acceptance and review, and thus make it easier for citizens to receive legal aid. They have expanded the scope of supplementary items for legal aid, relaxed criteria for economic difficulty applying to legal aid, and increased fund guarantee for legal aid. From 2012 to 2015, the central government allocated 1.52 billion yuan to legal aid. The Central Authorities have urged local governments to include a legal aid fund in their budgets. As of 2015, 24 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) had established a provincial-level specialized fund for legal aid, and 91.4 percent of all local governments had covered the legal aid fund in their budgets. From 2012 to 2015, 4.7 million legal aid cases were handled around the country. This represents an average annual increase of 7.4 percent, benefiting more than 5.26 million people and providing legal advice to 25.87 million.