On June 29, 2020, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People¡¯s Court (hereinafter referred to as the ¡°Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court¡±) held a press conference to brief on the court¡¯s exploration and achievements in improving the quality of trials, and released the publicly published book Judicial Opinions on the Trial of Similar Cases and 18 microlectures recorded by the court. Huang Xiangqing and Tang Liming, respectively President and Vice President of the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court, attended the press conference.   

The press conference announced that in order to inherit the trial experience, enhance the judicial capacity, and promote the unification of the law, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court filmed a series of microlectures in the first half of 2020, with the themes focusing on the common law application issues in judicial practice and the trial of similar cases, covering multiple fields including criminal, civil, commercial, administrative, etc., with pragmatic content and strong practical guidance. So far, 13 microlectures on the application of law and 5 microlectures on the trial of similar cases have been produced. Two of the microlectures were broadcast on site, namely ¡°Censorship Standards for Revocable Contracts with Non-freedom of Expression¡± Intentional Freedom,¡± and ¡°Trial Ideas and Judicial Opinions on Cases Involving Disputes over Personality Rights¡±.

Tang Liming introduced that the microlectures act as an innovative measure of Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court to pragmatically promote the quality of trials under the new situation, effectively solving the problem that the staff cannot gather together for learning in the time of COVID-19, and meeting the needs of self-learning through network and in pieces of time. The filming of microlectures was led by Huang Xiangqing, a ¡°National Trial Expert¡± and President of the court. The keynote speakers were selected from the presidents of courts, chief judges of tribunals, and leading talents in training. To ensure the quality, each microlecture has been reviewed for multiple times. The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court has been vigorously promoting the use of the above microlectures. In addition to participating in the microlecture competition of the National Judges College and to being used by the ¡°Chinese Judicial Training Network¡± and ¡°The Supreme People¡¯s Court Cloud Class,¡± etc., they are also uploaded to the court¡¯s network, shfy.chinacourt.gov.cn, and used for guidance and exchange meetings in the jurisdiction. They will also be posted through the WeChat official account and the official website of the court. At this press conference, 18 microlectures were burned to a CD, which will be used for external exchanges to expand the beneficiary groups.

The press conference informed that in August 2018, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court began to explore the summary mechanism of the trial of similar cases. By summarizing and refining the trial experience and judgment methods of similar cases, the court explored new ideas and methods to improve the quality of trials and promote the unification of appropriate laws. On April 3, 2019, the court held a press conference to inform the society about the exploration results of the above-mentioned summary mechanism. On November 1, 2019, the court held a seminar on similar cases, focusing on topics such as ¡°search and use of similar cases.¡± Up to now, the court has published 36 reports on similar, and carried out a series of work around the promotion and application of similar cases.

This press conference is also the first public appearance of the book Judicial Opinions on the Trial of Similar Cases (volume 1). This book of more than 310,000 characters includes 32 reports on similar cases issued by the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court, condensing the best trial experience wisdom tested by the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court. It is one of the important achievements of the court¡¯s quality construction of trials.

In order to ensure that the reports on similar cases truly become an effective carrier for case handling guidelines, business training materials, and judicial disclosure and business guidance, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court continues to explore and strives to achieve multi-platform display, multi-dimensional posting, and multi-channel search. In addition to the regular posting on its WeChat official account and official website, the publication of books, etc. the court has developed and launched a platform to post the reports on similar cases. By clarifying the elements of reports on similar cases and establishing the correlation between similar cases and specific cases, the court strives to realize intelligent and accurate posting of reports on similar cases for the judges, promoting the unification of applicable laws; Meanwhile, by printing the QR codes of similar cases on subpoenas, case acceptance notices and other materials, the reports on similar cases have been made available to the relevant parties, guiding them to have reasonable litigation expectations and good litigation mentality, and enhancing their conviction in judicial judgment. In addition, in order to facilitate users to quickly find the required reports on similar cases, the court developed the search function of title search of reports on similar cases, full-text precision or fuzzy search. The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court plans to make the reports on similar cases available to the judges of the courts within the jurisdiction to guide their trial. At the same time, in cooperation with the Shanghai Mobile Micro Court, the links of reports on similar case will be sent to parties through electronic service and SMS reminders.

The press conference declared that in recent years, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court has continued to work on the improvement of the quality trials, and has successively launched a series of reforms regarding the judicial operation mechanisms, including ¡°distribution of complex and simple cases,¡± ¡°expert judges¡¯ meeting,¡± ¡°summary of similar cases,¡± ¡°case-handling software for standard and transparent execution,¡± etc. The above-mentioned reform measures were also made into five special short films, which were burned into CDs for communication and sharing between the courts within the jurisdiction and the cooperative courts.

In 2020, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court further established the work objective of ¡°building trial highlands¡± transformed the focus of advancing trial quality construction from the early mechanism construction into a process, and changed the standardization of its internal mechanisms to a quality community building that influences the courts within the jurisdiction.

Huang Xiangqing pointed out that the construction of trial quality is not a new subject. The reason why this construction is continuously promoted is that it is a long-term cause. With the continuous advancement of the construction of the rule of law in China, the public has higher and higher requirements for fair judgment. At the same time, the constantly changing new situation continues to pose new challenges to judicial adjudication. In recent years, there have been many new laws and regulations, and social and economic activities have become increasingly diverse. For example, the promulgation of the Civil Code, the new types of disputes caused by COVID-19, and the application of new technologies have brought new challenges to judicial trials. The judicial capacity of judges necessitates constant improvement so as to ensure the quality of trials.

As an intermediate court, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court not only focuses on the construction of its trial quality, but also incorporates the strengthening of judicial guidance and communication in the jurisdiction into this year¡¯s key work, and is committed to improving the trial quality of the courts at two level as a whole. The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court has adopted an array of measures to integrate the work of ¡°summary of the trial of similar cases¡± with the business guidance within the jurisdiction on the basis of strengthening the case quality evaluation of this court. Relying on the regional conferences, seminars and business exchange platforms in the jurisdiction, with the help of a series of microlectures, cloud classes and other forms, a product pattern in which traditional paper media and new video media complement each other is formed. Full coverage from daily instant communication to periodic discussions has been achieved, and case discussions, summary of similar cases, and thematic discussions have been incorporated, ensuring that the results of the discussions benefit all judges in the courts within the jurisdiction. In 2020, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court has held a total of 7 trial business meetings among the courts within the jurisdiction and 1 jurisdictional court seminar. In the near future, a mid-year symposium will be held, the presidents of the courts within the jurisdiction will be invited to share their opinions and suggestions on the construction of trial quality of the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court in the first half of the year, so as to jointly figure out a good strategy to improve the trial quality of the courts at two levels.

Huang Xiangqing said at the press conference that the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court will further strengthen innovation awareness and methods, expand the channels of learning, research and exchange of experience, and participation scope and coverage, etc., to contribute to the overall improvement of the trial quality of courts at two levels under the new situation. The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court will adhere to its pragmatic idea and style, continue to keep the construction of trial quality in alignment with the actual trial work, pay attention to details, pool wisdom and efforts, combine the construction of trial quality with the cultivation of talents, and improve the trial ability of judges as a whole, in order to deliver more exemplary  case trials.