Supreme People's Court


The Supreme People's Court, officially the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China, is the highest level of court in the mainland area of the People's Republic of China. Except for cases investigated by the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the CPG in the HKSAR, Hong Kong and Macau, as special administrative regions, have their own separate judicial systems based on British common law traditions and Portuguese civil-law traditions respectively, and are out of the jurisdiction of the Supreme People's Court.
The Supreme People's Court is regarded as the superior appellate forum in China which supervises and governs the procedure of justice by all the special people courts and the local, subordinate courts. It is also the court of last resort in the whole of China.
The court is made up of 340 judges who meet in smaller tribunals to decide cases.
The court system consists of a four-level, two-hearing system trial process.

History

The court was established on 22 October 1949.
In 2005, the Supreme People's Court announced its intent to " back authority for death penalty approval" over concerns about "sentencing quality", and the National People's Congress officially changed the Organic Law on the People's Courts to require all death sentences to be approved by the Supreme People's Court on 31 October 2006. A 2008 report stated that since the new review process, the court has rejected 15 percent of the death sentences decided by lower courts.
Since March 2013, the President of the Supreme People's Court and Grand Chief Justice has been Zhou Qiang.
In 2013, the court began a blacklist of debtors with roughly thirty-two-thousand names. The list has since been described a first step towards a national Social Credit System by state media.
In 2015, the court began working with private companies on social credit. For example, Sesame Credit began deducting credit points from people who defaulted on court fines.
On 1 January 2019, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court was established to handle all second instance hearings from cases heard in the first instance by the Intellectual Property Courts.

Functions

  1. Conducting trial of the following cases: first-hearing cases placed with the SPC by laws and regulations and those the SPC deems within its jurisdiction; appeals or protests against trial decisions or verdicts of the higher people's courts and special people's courts; appeals against court judgments lodged by the Supreme People's Procuratorate according to trial supervision procedures.
  2. Giving approval to death sentences.
  3. Supervising the trials by local people's courts and special people's courts at different levels.
  4. On discovering mistakes in the rulings and verdicts of local people's courts already being legally enforced, conducting questioning or appointing a lower level court to conduct re-hearing.
  5. Giving approvals to verdicts on crimes not specifically stipulated in the criminal law.
  6. Offering explanations over the concrete application of laws during the trial process. Further details about this were described by Zhou Qiang as:

    Organisational structure

; Courts within the SPC
; Departments within the SPC
; Circuit courts of the SPC
  1. First Circuit
  2. Second Circuit
  3. Third Circuit
  4. Fourth Circuit
  5. Fifth Circuit
  6. Sixth Circuit

    President/Chief Justices and Vice Presidents of the Court

  7. 1949–1954: Supreme People's Court of the Central People's Government
  8. * President: Shen Junru
  9. 1954–1959: Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China under the 1st National People's Congress
  10. * President: Dong Biwu
  11. * Vice Presidents: Gao Kelin, Ma Xiwu, Zhang Zhirang
  12. 1959–1965: 2nd National People's Congress
  13. * President: Xie Juezai
  14. * Vice Presidents: Wu Defeng, Wang Weigang, Zhang Zhirang
  15. 1965–1975: 3rd National People's Congress
  16. * President: Yang Xiufeng
  17. * Vice Presidents: Tan Guansan, Wang Weigang, Zeng Hanzhou, He Lanjie, Xing Yimin, Wang Demao, Zhang Zhirang
  18. 1975–1978: 4th National People's Congress
  19. * President: Jiang Hua
  20. * Vice Presidents: Wang Weigang, Zeng Hanzhou, He Lanjie, Zheng Shaowen
  21. 1978–1983: 5th National People's Congress
  22. * President: Jiang Hua
  23. * Vice Presidents: Zeng Hanzhou, He Lanjie, Zheng Shaowen, Song Guang, Wang Huaian, Wang Zhanping
  24. 1983–1988: 6th National People's Congress
  25. * President: Zheng Tianxiang
  26. * Vice Presidents: Ren Jianxin, Song Guang, Wang Huaian, Wang Zhanping, Lin Huai, Zhu Mingshan, Ma Yuan
  27. 1988–1993: 7th National People's Congress
  28. * President: Ren Jianxin
  29. * Vice Presidents: Hua Liankui, Lin Huai, Zhu Mingshan, Ma Yuan, Duan Muzheng
  30. 1993–1998: 8th National People's Congress
  31. * President: Ren Jianxin
  32. * Vice Presidents: Zhu Mingshan, Xie Anshan, Gao Changli, Tang Dehua, Liu Jiachen, Luo Haocai, Li Guoguang, Lin Huai, Hua Liankui, Duan Muzheng, Wang Jingrong, Ma Yuan
  33. 1998–2003: 9th National People's Congress
  34. * President: Xiao Yang
  35. * Vice Presidents: Zhu Mingshan, Li Guoguang, Jiang Xingchang, Shen Deyong, Wan Exiang, Cao Jianming, Zhang Jun, Huang Songyou, Jiang Bixin
  36. 2003–2007: 10th National People's Congress
  37. * President: Xiao Yang
  38. * Vice Presidents: Cao Jianming, Jiang Xingchang, Shen Deyong, Wan Exiang, Huang Songyou, Su Zelin, Xi Xiaoming, Zhang Jun, Xiong Xuanguo
  39. 2008–2013: 11th National People's Congress
  40. * President: Wang Shengjun
  41. * Vice Presidents: Shen Deyong, Zhang Jun, Wan Exiang, Jiang Bixin, Su Zelin, Xi Xiaoming, Nan Ying, Jing Hanchao, Huang Ermei
  42. 2013–2018: 12th National People's Congress
  43. * President: Zhou Qiang
  44. 2018—present: 13th National People's Congress
  45. * President: Zhou Qiang