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“The heart of the ‘Fengqiao Experience’ is about resolving disputes and keeping disputes from being escalated,”
“The people’s courts’ promotion of the ‘Fengqiao Experience’ for a new era comes down to efficient and substantive resolution of disputes,”
said Jia Yu, secretary of the Party Leadership Group and president of the Shanghai High People’s Court (SHPC) at the conference held on the afternoon of May 15 for promotion of the “Fengqiao Experience” for a new era and practicing of active justice as well as establishment of the Fengqiao-Style people’s tribunals.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s instruction to learn and promote the “Fengqiao Experience”, and the 20th anniversary of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s instruction to follow and develop the “Fengqiao Experience”. In order to fulfill the assignments of the Central Committee and the Supreme People’s Court, SHPC held the conference to sum up experience, make arrangements, and commend the outstanding people’s courts in Shanghai and advanced individuals working at the people’s courts in Shanghai.
“We will work hard to open up the key nodes of litigation source management.” “We will focus on party building and empowerment, and strengthen the ‘leading force’ of the red engine.” “We are determined to ‘root deeply’ at the grassroots level, practice active justice to effectively resolve disputes, bring justice and warmth to the people and let them feel that fairness and justice is guaranteed.” ... At the meeting, Zhu Changyun, president of the Shanghai Chongming District People’s Court, Zhang Li, president of the Sijing People’s Tribunal, Shanghai Songjiang District People’s Court, and Gan Huali, chief judge of the Tinglin People’s Tribunal, Shanghai Jinshan District People’s Court, gave speeches on behalf of their courts or themselves.
“The ‘Fengqiao Experience’ is not only a local working method adopted in Fengqiao, but also an important approach adopted by the Party and state in grassroots social governance,” said Mr. Jia. He shared the experience of his investigation in Fengqiao back in 2004, and elaborated on the connotations of the “Fengqiao Experience” in different periods.
He said, “The people’s courts’ promotion of the ‘Fengqiao Experience’ for a new era comes down to efficient and substantive resolution of disputes.” “To promote the ‘Fengqiao Experience’ for a new era, the key is to promoting the thematic education, studying and practicing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Xi Jinping Thought on the rule of law, implement the Mr. Xi’s requirements of ‘grasping the front end and taking preventive measures’, and practice ‘active justice’.”
On how to promote the “Fengqiao Experience” for a new era and practice active justice, Mr. Jia mentioned the three points below:
We should look at the bigger picture. “If the source of litigation is well managed, the courts will receive fewer cases,” said Mr. Jia. We should not just turn our back on the source of litigation. Instead, we should move back the dispute resolution point and use the establishment of the “Fengqiao-Style people’s tribunals” as an opportunity to resolve disputes right within communities, sub-districts, towns, and enterprises. We should strengthen the whole-process management of pre-trial mediation cases, “We cannot do with no indicators, or with indicators only, or with false indicators. There is only one fundamental standard, which is to let the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.”
We should always stand with the people. “People bring an action with the court because they want to have their disputes resolved for good,” said Mr. Jia. The courts should promote the “Fengqiao Experience” for a new era, stay on the side of the people, and resolve the disputes with high quality and efficiency in the court stage. It is necessary to correctly handle the relationship between quality and efficiency, “procedural justice” and “case closure”, and legal handling of cases and active justice, reach a consensus that “quality comes before speed, and efficiency without justice and effect is low efficiency or even negative efficiency”, and promote the unification of “three effects” within the legal framework.
We should extend judicial functions. In addition to promoting the governance of the source of litigation in individual cases, it is more important to play the active role of justice, integrate it into social governance, focus on the front end and take preventive measures, and promote the conclusion of group cases with that of individual ones, so as to ensure “one case concluded and one area managed”. “For example, in some areas, the incidence of similar cases is high, and if we can help address the root problems in policy making and industry supervision through judicial advice, that is the solution to the root cause.”
At present, there are 39 people’s tribunals in the nine primary people’s courts across Shanghai, with jurisdiction over 93 towns and 23 sub-districts, covering a population of about 15.6 million people, accounting for about 60% of the city’s permanent population. Those people’s tribunals receive more than 80,000 cases annually, accounting for about 30% of the civil cases received by the primary people’s courts that have people’s tribunals, playing a major part in substantively resolving disputes, boosting rural revitalization, promoting grass-roots governance, and serving the people.
So, moving forward, how can the courts in Shanghai take the lead in promoting the “Fengqiao Experience” for a new era and practicing active justice? “Making good use of digital means and reflecting the effectiveness of digital courts in the governance of the source of litigation is a key move,” said Mr. Jia. By practicing active justice, it is necessary to dig into the relationship between what lies behind cases over people’s livelihood, social governance, finance and business, and the economic and social development, reveal financial and commercial risks, petition risks, etc., help generate reports on risk prevention, and provide useful references for party committees and governments to make scientific decisions.
At the meeting, Wang Guangxian, vice president of SHPC, summarized the work done by the people’s tribunals across the city and made assignments on creating the Fengqiao-style people’s tribunals. Mi Zhenrong, a full-time member of SHPC’s Review Committee, assigned work on managing the source of litigation. Attendees included members of the Municipal Eighth Circuit Steering Group on thematic education on studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, leading officials from the Municipal Political and Legal Committee, Municipal Procuratorate, Municipal Public Security Bureau, Municipal Justice Bureau, Municipal People’s Congress Supervision and Justice Committee, and Municipal Political Consultative Conference Social and Legal Affairs Committee, members of the Party Leadership Group, leading officials, full-time members of the Trial Committee, bureau-level cadres, and department heads of SHPC, presidents of each district people’s court and the Shanghai Railway Transportation People’s Court, leaders and department heads of the intermediate and primary courts in charge of case filing, civil trial, and information technology, and trial experts and backbone in courts across the city.
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