The judicial branch, organized under the constitution and organic law, is one of five organs of state power elected by the National People's Congress (NPC), in the People's Republic of China. China does not have judicial independence as the courts do not have authority beyond what is granted to them by the NPC under a system of unitary power. The Chinese Communist Party's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission maintains effective control over the court system and its personnel. Hong Kong and Macau have separate court systems in accordance with the "one country, two systems" doctrine.
Court structure
According to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China of 1982 and the Organic Law of the People's Courts that went into effect on January 1, 1980, the Chinese courts are divided into a four-level court system (Supreme, High, Intermediate and Primary): At the highest level is the Supreme People's Court (SPC) in Beijing, the premier appellate forum of the land and court of last resort, which supervises the administration of justice by all subordinate "local" and "special" people's courts. It also sets up six circuit courts seat outside of the state capital, which acts in the same capacity, to hear cross-provincial cases within respective jurisdiction. Local people's courts—the courts of the first instance—handle criminal and civil cases. These people's courts make up the remaining three levels of the court system and consist of "high people's courts" at the level of the provinces, autonomous regions, and special municipalities; "intermediate people's courts" at the level of prefectures, autonomous prefectures, and municipalities; and "primary people's courts" at the level of autonomous counties, towns, and municipal districts. Courts of Special Jurisdiction (special courts) comprises the Military Courts (military), Railway Transportion Court of China (railroad transportation) and Maritime Courts (water transportation), Internet Courts, Intellectual Property Courts and Financial Court. Except for the Military Courts, all other courts of special jurisdiction falls under the general jurisdiction of its respective high court.
Candidates for judgeship must pass the National Judicial Examination.
The court system is paralleled by a hierarchy of prosecuting offices called people's procuratorates, the highest being the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
Local departments of justice can revoke the license of lawyers, this power is used to target lawyers who challenge the authority of the state, particularly human rights lawyers.
Legal procedure
The Supreme Court is responsible for establishing and monitoring legal procedures in adherence to the laws and orders made by the legislative organs.
Following civil law traditions, the courts do not establish legally-binding precedent. The Supreme Court has the right to publish legal explanations of laws which are legally-binding but the right to interpret the constitution is reserved by the legislative organs. A verdict made by an inferior court can be challenged in its superior court, up to the Supreme Court, there are four levels of courts in total. A superior court can also designate any of its inferior courts to hear an appeal rather than do so itself.
Court proceedings in China are generally livestreamed, with exceptions including where classified information is discussed or where juveniles testify.
Civil
Besides the court system, it is also encouraged to resolve civil conflicts through a state-sponsored and -regulated mediation and arbitration system. After the first hearing of a civil case, the court is required by law to ask both parties if they are willing to resolve their conflict through a mediation, if agreed, the court should assign a mediator and oversee the process, if both parties reach an agreement, it will be legal-binding after the agreement is reviewed and documented by a judge of the court.
The enforceability of a civil verdict has long been an issue and has damaged the people's trust in the legal system. The Supreme People's Court has since then established a system to forbid debtors who fail to honor civil verdict from luxurious spending including luxurious hotel spending, flights and bullet train, though there are controversies as to if this gives the court too much authority.
Courts allow the parties to communicate with it via WeChat, through which parties can file lawsuits, participate in proceedings, present evidence, and listen to verdicts. As of December 2019, more than 3 million litigants had used WeChat for litigation.