In order to further standardize the work of unified application of the law of the Supreme People's Court, ensure the unanimous and correct implementation of laws, maintain judicial justice and enhance judicial credibility, these Measures are formulated in light of the actual work of trial execution by the Supreme People's Court.

 

Article 1  The work of unified application of the Law mentioned in these Measures comprising  drafting and formulating judicial interpretation or other normative documents, issuing cases, implementing the system of retrieving similar cases, convening professional judges' meetings to discuss cases and other work to promote the unified and correct implementation of unified laws.

 

Article 2  The Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court (hereinafter referred to as the Judicial Committee) shall be responsible for the work of unified application of the Law of the Supreme People's Court.

According to the division of functions, all departments are responsible for drafting and formulating judicial interpretations, issuing cases and other work of unified application of the Law.

The trial administration Office (hereinafter referred to as the TAO) shall be responsible for the overall planning, unified promotion, coordination and management of the unified application of the law.

 

Article 3  In handling cases of judicial execution, all judicial departments shall strictly abide by legal procedures, follow rules of evidence, correctly apply the law and ensure the unified and correct implementation of laws.

 

Article 4  All departments shall, according to the division of functions, sum up experience of the puzzling questions and non-unified situations of the unified application of the law in a timely manner, guide judicial practice in the form of replies and minutes of meetings, and formulate judicial interpretations or other normative documents to standardize the application of laws in an appropriate time.

 

Article 5 The Research Office shall be responsible for the collection, examination, release, compilation and evaluation of ruling cases. Typical cases issued by other departments may not conflict with the opinions and standards of ruling cases, and shall not be titled as ruling cases, cases for ruling, or other similar names.

 

Article 6   If a case comprises any of the following circumstances, the presiding judge shall carry out retrieval for case class:

(1) where is to be submitted to the judicial committee or council of judges for discussion;

(2) where clear rules of judgment are lacking, or uniform rules of judgment have not yet been formed;

(3) where are serious, difficult, complicated or sensitive;

(4) where involve mass disputes or cause widespread public concern and may affect social stability;

(5) where may be a conflict with the judgment of the Supreme People's Court in case class;

(6) where the unit or individual concerned reflects that the judge has committed an illegal trial;

(7) where the people's prosecutorial office protests;

(8) where during the trial, the public prosecution organ, the parties, their defenders and law agent submit ruling cases or the judgment of the Supreme People's Court that support their claims;

(9) where the president of the court, in accordance with the administration authority of adjudication supervision, requests to retrieve for case class.

Retrieval for similar cases can only retrieve the ruling cases issued by the Supreme People's Court and the effective judgments of the Supreme People's Court.

 

Article 7 For cases that should be retrieved for case class in accordance with the provisions of Article 6 of these Measures, the presiding judge shall explain the retrieval for case class in the hearing report or make a specific retrieval report for case class.

The retrieval report for case class shall objectively, comprehensively and accurately reflect the retrieval results of case class and shall be submitted together in the discussion with the collegial panel or the professional council of judges, the compensation committee, the judicial relief committee and the adjudication committee. The retrieval report for case class shall be included in the sub-volume along with the case.

 

Article 8   For cases that should be retrieved in accordance with article 6 of these Measures, the collegial panel shall incorporate the uniform standards for the application of law in the evaluation of cases into the evaluation of cases.

where during the trial, the public prosecution organ, the parties, their defenders, and law agent submit ruling cases or the judgment of the Supreme People's Court that support their claims, the collegial panel shall incorporate whether the submitted case, the effective judgment and the pending case belong to the case class into the evaluation of cases.

 

Article 9   where a pending case is similar to a ruling case in terms of basic facts and application of law, the collegial panel shall make a judgment with reference to the main points of the ruling case.

Where a ruling case is referred to, the ruling case shall be cited as the grounds for the judgment, but shall not be cited as the basis for a judgment. Where a ruling case is quoted as the part of reasons for the judgment, the serial number of the ruling case shall be indicated.

 

Article 10  Where the proposed judgment result of a pending case is inconsistent with ruling cases and the applicable standards for the judgment of cases of the Supreme People's Court, or the proposed judgment result will form a new standard for the application of law, the collegial panel shall make a proposal to submit it to the departmental professional council of judges for discussion; where the president of a court finds a case pending case comprises the foregoing situation, he shall convene a meeting of departmental professional council of judges for discussion in accordance with the procedure.

Where the cases mentioned in the preceding paragraph are not suitable to be submitted to the professional council of judges for discussion due to reasons such as confidentiality, they may be submitted directly to the judicial committee for discussion after approval by the leaders of the sub-administrative court at different levels.

 

Article 11 The Supreme People's Court shall establish and improve the mechanism for inter-departmental professional meeting of council of judges to research and resolve inter-departmental differences in the application of law or inter-field major problems in the application of law.

 

Article 12 Departmental and inter-departmental professional meeting of council shall record minutes of case discussion and meeting while discussing cases. Minutes of case discussion and meeting shall be captured into the sub-volumes along with the case.

 

The minutes of inter-departmental meetings of professional council of judges shall be distributed to the members of the trial committee and relevant judicial departments, the Trial Management Office shall be responsible for sorting and filing.

 

Article 13   The persons in charge of the judicial departments shall strengthen judicial administration and professional guidance in accordance with the administration authority of adjudication supervision to ensure the uniformity of the standards for the application of laws.

All judicial departments shall analyze and research the cases in which the opinions of the collegial panel, the professional meeting of council of judges, and the decisions of the judicial committee are inconsistent, and conscientiously summarize the problems of inconsistent and unclear application of law in the practice of judicial execution. The Trial Management Office shall timely discover, collect and sort out the problems of inconsistent and unclear application of laws by means of quality assessment of cases and letters from the masses.

 

Article 14   For the problems of inconsistent and unclear application of specific laws discovered through various channels, the Trial Management Office may organize research in various forms, propose solutions and submit them to the committee for discussion, and specify specific rules of judgment in the form of the committee's resolution on application of laws.

 

Article 15   The Supreme People's Court shall establish a platform for uniform application of law and corresponding database. the Trial Management Office, Research Office, Institute of Applied Law of China and Information Technology Service Center of the People's Court shall be responsible for the planning, construction, research and development, operation and maintenance, upgrading and improvement of the platform and corresponding database in according with their respective functions.

 

Article 16  The ruling cases issued by the Supreme People's Court, the trial business cases of second instance of judicial service departments, retrial cases, instructions on request, cases implementing supervision of reconsideration, cases discussed by the professional meeting of council of judge, compensation committee, judicial relief, and the judicial committee, and other typical cases with general ruling meaning shall be timely organized to be compiled and incorporated into the platform for uniform application of law by the Trial Management Office after the judgement documents are disclosed in internet.

The criteria and number of death penalty review cases to be incorporated in the database of the platform for uniform application of law shall be determined by each criminal tribunal in accordance with confidentiality requirements.

The cases discussed by the professional meeting of council of judges should be incorporated in the database of the for uniform application of law, the judicial departments shall designate special persons to be responsible for regularly submitting the minutes of the professional meeting of council of judges of the relevant cases, and the cases shall be incorporated in the database of the Platform.

 

Article 17   The cases incorporated in the database of the uniform application of law shall be examined and cleared in a timely manner.

Where, in the course of work all departments shall timely inform the Trial Management Office to update cases incorporated in the database of the Platform that have no ruling significance or reference value, or relevant judgments have been revised or revoked.

 

Article 18   All departments shall increase the professional competence training of judicial personnel, strengthen the training of judicial personnel in legal interpretation, case analysis, retrieval for case class, and application of science and technology, and comprehensively improve the ability of judicial personnel in the uniform application of law.

 

Article 19   The participation of judicial personnel in professional meetings of council of judges and sorting out case judgment rules shall be accounted into their workload. Where the cases recommended or compiled by various departments and judges are determined as ruling cases by the committee, or the research opinions on the application of specific laws are adopted by the committee to form the committee's resolution on the application of laws, they can be regarded as bonus points in performance appraisal.

 

Article 20 These Measures shall come into force as of December 1, 2021.