On May 29, 2020, the Shanghai High People's
Court (hereinafter referred to as the "SHPC") held a press conference
to release the White Paper on Administrative Trials 2019 (hereinafter referred
to as the "White Paper") and Typical Cases of Administrative Trials
2019 & Cases of Substantive Resolution of Administrative Disputes
(hereinafter referred to as the "Typical Cases"). Zhang Bin, Member
of the Party Leadership Group and Vice President of the SHPC, and Hou Danhua,
Presiding Judge of the Administrative Tribunal of the SHPC, attended the press
conference and answered reporters' questions. Sun Jing, Deputy Director of the
Office of Political Affairs and Spokesperson of the SHPC, served as the
hostess.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the
implementation of the Administrative Procedure Law of the People's
Republic of China and also the 5th anniversary of the amendment of
the law. The press conference was held both online and offline. In addition to
media reporters, administrative law scholars, relevant principals of
Administrative Review Division and Action Response Division of Shanghai
Municipal Bureau of Justice, Shanghai Public Security Bureau, Shanghai Municipal
Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Shanghai Municipal Planning
and Natural Resources Bureau, other municipal organs and Shanghai Bar
Association as well as relevant principals of district justice bureaus of
Pudong New Area, Baoshan and Chongming, etc. were invited to the spot.
Personnel of relevant courts across the city attended the press conference
online.
The White Paper shows, in 2019, the courts
across the city accepted 8015 cases of first and second instance, among which
8113 were concluded. It is worth noting that with the effective implementation
of Shanghai's strategy of law-based governance of the city and advancement in
the work of the substantive resolution of administrative disputes, some
administrative disputes are resolved before litigation, and the incidence of
administrative disputes has declined. According to statistics, in 2019, the
courts across the city accepted 5183 administrative cases of first instance, a year-on-year
decrease of 5.2%. This is the decrease in the number of administrative dispute
case for the second year in a row after the number of cases accepted peaked in
2017.
The trend of administrative cases of first
instance in the courts of the city from 2015 to 2019
Number of first-instance administrative cases
accepted |
|
In the meantime, in the context of the
reform of administrative organs and the reform of centralized jurisdiction over
administrative cases, in 2019, Shanghai courts promoted the working mechanism
of administrative organ heads' appearance in court to respond to lawsuits and
launched the "three-in-one" work of trying, hearing and commenting on
administrative cases, which played a positive role in promoting law-based
governance, alleviating the contradictions between the government and the
people, and promoting the substantive resolution of disputes. Heads of
administrative organs responded to cases in court throughout the year 1251
times, a year-on-year increase of 15.3%, and the appearance rate was 39.9%, a year-on-year
increase of 7.7%.
In addition, the administrative litigations
in 2019 also show the following characteristics: greater enthusiasm of lawyers
in participating in the resolution of administrative disputes, further
development of dispute resolution mechanisms, improved efficiency of administrative
case handling, and better service for the creation of law-based business
environment.
The White Paper points out that some of the
cases in 2019 also reflect some problems in administrative law enforcement and
response to administrative lawsuits. For example, some grassroots organs need
to strengthen their awareness of law enforcement norms; violations of
administrative law enforcement procedures happen from time to time;
administrative organs' ability to respond to lawsuits and defend for themselves
needs to be improved.
The press conference informed that the
substantive resolution of administrative disputes is and will be the focus of
Shanghai's administrative trial work at present and for some time to come. This
is not only a powerful point of strength for the implementation of the "people-centered"
development thinking in administrative trials, but also an important part of
the implementation of the "resolution of administrative disputes" in
the new administrative procedure law. The White Paper shows that in 2019,
Shanghai courts resolved 1,541 administrative disputes through first- and
second-instance coordination and reconciliation, accounting for 29.2% of the
total number of first-instance cases concluded, an increase of 6.4% year on year.
Nearly 30% of administrative disputes were substantially resolved through
litigation.
Among the typical cases released this time,
there are 10 cases of substantive resolution of administrative disputes.
According to Hou Danhua, the substantive resolution of administrative disputes
represents the results of Shanghai courts achieved in the intensive work of
substantive resolution in recent years and displays diversified mediation and
settlement means of the courts and judges at various levels, such as reliance
on multiple mediation and settlement central forces of non-centralized
jurisdiction courts, president or presiding judges' leading role in
coordination and case handling, administrative heads' appearance in court to
respond to lawsuits, package dispute resolution, facilitation of mediation with
judgments and other mechanisms; working out a whole process for the substantive
resolution of administrative disputes and applying it before, during and after
litigations, which not only supports and promotes the law-based governance of
the administrative organs, but also effectively protects the legitimate rights
and interests of the people.
In 2018, the SHPC formulated and issued the
opinions on the improvement of the mechanisms for substantive resolution of
administrative disputes and established the center for diversified mediation
and settlement of administrative disputes. In 2019, the SHPC continued working
on the "updated version" of substantive resolution of administrative
disputes: first, the Court formulated a guidance on the substantive resolution
of administrative disputes which lays emphasis on "coordination and
reconciliation" and "judgment acceptance and no more appeals"
and aims to facilitate coordination and reconciliation while guiding on how to
avoid idling procedures and alleviate the parties' litigation fatigue, etc.
through making judgment according to law; second, the SHPC developed the
visualization module for substantive resolution of administrative disputes to
conduct all-round and dynamic assessment and management of the substantive
resolution of administrative disputes on departments, trial teams and judges
undertaking the administrative trial functions of courts across the city.
Zhang Bin expressed that this year the SHPC
would fully promote pre-litigation mediation in administrative cases by relying
on the center for diversified mediation and settlement of administrative
disputes, build a mechanism that connects the diversified dispute resolution
platform of the court and the municipal justice bureau's platform "smart
justice" to actively explore non-litigation mediations, and truly put the
non-litigation resolution mechanisms first, and continue to build a mediation
and settlement platform that adapts to the centralized jurisdiction of
administrative cases. So far, both Shanghai Chongming District People's Court
and Shanghai Fengxian District People's Court have established diversified
mediation and settlement centers. Courts without centralized jurisdiction over
administrative cases are also encouraged to establish diversified mediation and
settlement centers in the future so as to form a joint force for substantive
resolution of administrative disputes.
The press conference informed that this is
the 17th year that the SHPC produced and issued white paper on administrative
trials. As early as in 2004, the SHPC began to formulate and release white
paper on administrative trials. In 2010, it became a normal for the white paper
on administrative trials to fully cover both municipal and district (county)
levels. Compared with previous years, this year the White Paper displays the
whole picture of administrative litigations instead of only introducing administrative
trial work, and makes analyses by combining administrative actions with
Shanghai's building of a law-based government.
The White Paper puts forward four
suggestions for the building of a law-based government: 1. improve governance according to law and
provide the power for the rule of law to enhance the core competitiveness of
the city; 2. improve the ability to respond to lawsuits as well as the working
mechanism for response to administrative lawsuits; 3. intensify reconsideration
supervision and give full play to the role of administrative reconsideration as
the main channel for dispute resolution; 4. build a new platform for positive
interactions to promote the substantive resolution of administrative disputes.
At the press conference, Zhang Bin
emphasized that in 2020 Shanghai courts would continue to take the promotion of
substantive resolution of administrative disputes as the main task, serve the
overall situation around the center, give full play to the adjudication
function, strengthen practical research on common issues, push forward the work
to encourage the heads of administrative organs to appear in court to respond
to lawsuits and hear trials, do better in the review of normative documents and
promote the building of a law-based government. In the meanwhile, Shanghai
courts would focus on the national strategy and the overall situation of the
city, adhere to the principle of justice for the people and fair justice,
further strengthen the judicial review function, continue to promote the
substantive resolution of administrative disputes, work on the emphases,
strengthen areas of weakness, and pay attention to coordination, so as to
facilitate the high quality development in the administrative trial work of the
city and provide Shanghai with good judicial services and strong judicial
guarantee for enhancing the city's energy level and core competitiveness and
improving the governance capacity and capability of the modern socialist
international metropolis.
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