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This year marks the 30th anniversary of the promulgation of Administrative Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China. On May 29, 2019, Shanghai High People’s Court (“SHPC”) held a press conference at which Zhang Bin, Vice president of SHPC, announced the relevant contents of the White Paper on the Administrative Trials by Courts of Shanghai in 2018 (the “White Paper”), whereas Li Jian, Chief of the Administrative Tribunal of SHPC, introduced the “Top 10 Cases on Substantive Resolution of Administrative Disputes in 2018 (“Top 10 cases”). The conference was presided over by Sun Jing, Head of the Legal Publicity and Education Department and press spokesman of SHPC. SHPC has issued white papers on administrative trials for 16 consecutive years and this is the second time it released the white paper to the public. The White Paper is divided into three parts, that is, the overall situation and characteristics of administrative litigations in Shanghai in 2018, difficulties and problems found in administrative litigations, and relevant suggestions for building a government ruled by law in the context of reform. According to the White Paper, Shanghai courts accepted a total of 9,262 administrative cases at the first instance and second instance, and concluded 9,896 ones in 2018. Among them, 1,364 administrative disputes were resolved by means of coordination in the first instance, with a settlement rate of 22.8%. At the same time, persons in charge of administrative organs of Shanghai appeared in court to respond to 1,167 complaints in total, accounting for 17.51% of the total number of administrative cases heard in court, up 2.53% over the same period. Shanghai courts also organized a number of centralized court hearing and observation activities in conjunction with the legal department of Shanghai Municipal Government to jointly promote the “three-in-one” project, i.e., person in charge of administrative organs in Shanghai appear in court, attend the hearing and make corresponding comments, which, so far, has won the Fifth China Law-based Government Award. According to the press conference, Shanghai courts thoroughly promoted the reform of centralized jurisdiction over administrative cases in 2018. Administrative cases of first instance, which were originally tried by the grass-roots courts, were transferred to Pudong, Minhang and Jing’an District People’s Courts and Shanghai Railway Transportation Court for centralized jurisdiction, and Shanghai courts took the lead in realizing the centralized and cross-district jurisdiction over all administrative cases of Shanghai grass-roots courts. At the same time, giving priority to “deepening the reform of the substantive resolution mechanism of administrative disputes, detailing and improving relevant rules on coordinated resolution of administrative cases” throughout the year, SHPC formulated relevant documents, established and perfected several mechanisms concerning diversified resolution of administrative disputes, resolution of administrative disputes through cooperation, assessment and reward, promotion and summary, etc. So far, SHPC, Shanghai intermediate people’s courts and grass-roots courts in charge of centralized jurisdiction over administrative cases have established the diversified mediation and resolution centers for administrative disputes. Zhang Bin said at the news conference that in 2018, administrative litigations witnessed three ‘increases’, i.e., the number of cases in which enterprise legal persons acted as plaintiffs increased, the number of plaintiffs’ claims related to labor, social security, environmental protection and other fields of people’s livelihood increased; and the number of new types of cases involving the credit supervision duties of Shanghai Branch of the People’s Bank of China, online ride-hailing and hitch ride supervision, etc. increased. It’s informed that the Top 10 cases released this time were selected by SHPC from 29 cases after comprehensively considering the type of cases, resolution results and typical significance, etc. These cases cover such aspects as decisions on land expropriation compensation, ordered delivery of land, administrative supply, complaint and report response, administrative arbitrariness, administrative punishment for environmental protection, performance of statutory duties an decision on demolition of illegal structures within the specified period, etc., and were resolved in diversified ways including resorting to diversified mediation centers, direct case-handling by presidents and division heads, appearance of persons in charge of administrative affairs in court, broadcast of Internet trials, cooperation between judicial and administrative departments, letter of suggestions on resolving dispute and pressing mediation by threatening adjudication. In particular, the above cases have promoted the administration of administrative organs in accordance with the law while effectively safeguarded the vital interests of the masses with a focus on the national strategies and overall concerns of Shanghai as well as providing judicial services and guarantees for “optimizing the business environment”, cracking down “five violations” and “promoting old area renovation,” etc. 
2018年度上海行政审判白皮书.pdf
