Strengthening South-South Judicial Cooperation to Promote the Development of Global Human Rights

Judicial cooperation is one of the significant components of South-South cooperation. Furthermore, in the process of South-South cooperation, the establishment of a fair, rational, and transparent new system of international justice must be jointly promoted. The Chinese judicial authorities have made new progress in deepening judicial reforms, enhancing judicial transparency, improving human rights judicial protection mechanisms and strengthening the construction of smart courts, and have accumulated rich judicial experience. Under the background that many changes and great upheavals are taking place in the international world, countries of the Global South should strengthen their judicial exchanges and cooperation, especially in the field of the judicial protection of human rights. SouthSouth cooperation should be enhanced and they should learn from each other, so they can jointly make contributions to the development of the legal world.

Judicial Administration Reform Promotes Human Rights——An interview with Zhang Sujun,Vice-Minister of Justice

Following is a transcript of an interview given to Human Rights by Zhang Sujun, China＇s Vice-Minister of Justice, on how the on-going judicial administration reform promotes the protection of human rights in the country.

Judicial Reform in Interest of Human Rights

In performing its duties, the Chinese Government has always followed the principle of "governing the country in the interest of the people," and attached importance to respect for and protection of human rights to which the Chinese people are entitled. Social and economic conditions for protecting human rights have kept improving over the past two decades, in step with the constant growth of the national strength under the state policy of reform and opening up to the outside world. Moreover, the 15th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party established "rule of law" as the fundamental principle for governance of the country and called for a judicial reform to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese people. Judicial organs across the country have yielded positive results in implementing the principle and the reform.

Reform of China's Judicial System Promotes Protection of Human Rights——An interview with Wang Shengjun, secretary-general of the Politico-Legal Committee of the CPC Central Committee

The 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China （CPC） held in 2003 set thetask of promoting the reform of China＇s judicial system, a task seen as of strategic importance to the country＇s development. Shortly afterwards, the CPC Central Committee set up the Leading Group for the Judicial System Reform （LGJSR）.

SPECIAL ISSUE： ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGIES IN TRANSITIONAL CHINA-- China＇s Anti-corruption Strategies from the Viewpoint of Criminal Justice

A high incidence of corruption cases is a conspicuous feature of China＇s present stage of social transition. Responding to the demands of combating corruption, Chinese criminal justice has developed a unique set of investigative methods and principles for handling of such cases, placing a high value on relying on the masses to find and act on cases of corruption and promptly adjusting its focus to the key areas of such crimes. It concentrates on enhancing investigative capacity and strengthening the standardization of anti-corruption criminal justice. These practices represent the concrete embodiment in the field of criminal justice of the government＇s anti-corruption strategies. At the same time, China also faces some challenges in adjusting these procedures to accord with international practice. This is one of the aims of the judicial reform in China.

Cost-Sharing in Civil Justice

As an economic factor affecting access to justice, the cost of justice naturally constitutes an element of judicial reform. It is the overall deconstruction of the cost of civil justice, rather than partial observation and analysis confined to litigation costs, that can legitimize the sharing of court and litigation costs and clarify the demarcation between public and private costs. This first-order rule of cost-sharing is intended to establish a balance between the state＇s investment of public resources in the judicial system and the costs borne by the litigant. The second-order rule of cost-sharing centers on the distribution of litigation costs among litigants. This requires not only the setting up of the goal of just and equitable sharing of litigation costs, but also the overall consideration of the adjustment function of the cost mechanism in litigation and pursuit of the general improvement of the justice system. The third-order cost-sharing rule should focus on giving full play to the legal services market and social organizations in sharing the cost of litigation. Its success will depend on the development of professional ethics and on legal regulation.

TRANS-REGIONAL COURTS IN CHINA:A STUDY OF ESTABLISHMENT MODELS AND JURISDICTIONAL RULES

The trans-administrative regional(trans-regional)court was created as part of China’s judicial reforms in 2014.Thus far,only two trans-regional courts have been established,namely the Shanghai No.3 and Beijing No.4 Intermediate People’s Courts.An important reason for this slow pace is that the trans-regional court has transcended the current structural framework under the Organic Law of the People’s Courts in that(1)it is neither a specialized court that hears certain types of cases,(2)nor a local court established completely in keeping with administrative divisions.Therefore,the legal nature and status can only be clarified and justified when there is a clear definition of this new court system in the Organic Law of the People’s Courts.Several models,namely the independent set-up model,full reshuffling model and limited transformation model,have been proposed for the establishment of trans-regional courts.The most practical and efficient among these models is the limited transformation model,aiming to reconstruct the existing railway transportation courts.The trans-regional courts may have exclusive,alienage,or supplemental jurisdiction.Each form addresses particular types of special and major trans-regional cases,and other cases based on the theory of consolidation.

From De Facto Fact-finder to Expert Witness? Transition of Forensic Examination in China

Forensic examination plays an important role in China's judicial system,especially in the fact-finding process of both civil and criminal proceedings.Since 2005,this system has experienced gradual,yet significant changes.This paper seeks to examine the major themes of these changes in the context of the continued conceptual reformulation and structural realignment of civil and criminal procedures and the ongoing effort to codify evidence law with transforming impact on China's judicial system and culture.Emphasis is given to the transition of the forensic examination system from an officially(both administrative and judicial)administered fact-finding mechanism with powerful impact on the courts'truth-seeking activities to,at least partially,an expert witness system with significant participation and control by the parties5 to judicial proceedings.A convergence of influence from both the continental inquisitorial tradition and the common law adversarial structure appears to have strongly informed the process and direction of the Chinese forensic examination reform.This paper attempts to explain the reasons for this convergence of influence,identify the trend and direction of this development,and provide observations and suggestions for further improvement of the forensic examination system in several key aspects with particular reference to the legal principles and judicial practices under the Federal Rules of Evidence of the United States.