Chinese courts told to improve handling of business, tech cases

Chinese courts have been ordered to improve the business environment by protecting intellectual property and the legitimate rights of entrepreneurs as well as by safeguarding data security, including that dealing with personal information.

While highlighting civil litigation's role in economic and social development, a report by the Supreme People's Court, China's top court, also demanded courts across the country strengthen IP- and entrepreneur-related case hearings to better the business environment through rule of law.

The report was submitted to the bimonthly session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, the country's top legislature, for review on Thursday.

To keep up with the rapid development of the digital economy and the internet, "we need to intensify efforts in educating judicial talent in hearing new types of civil disputes, including those on IP, the internet, finance and foreign-related commerce," Zhou Qiang, the president of the top court, said when explaining the report to lawmakers.

Given that some cases involving new technologies such as unmanned driving, digital currency and robot writing lack a sound legal basis, Zhou suggested the legislature make laws or explanations to help judges solve such problems.

The report said 13.85 million civil cases were filed by Chinese courts last year, up from 7.78 million in 2013, with more related to the internet, IP, finance, bankruptcy, the environment, foreign-related commerce and maritime issues.

From 2013 to June, about 92.02 million civil disputes were heard by Chinese courts, with 89.2 million having been concluded, it said.

To increase the efficiency of handling disputes, courts across the country explored various new approaches in case hearing, such as opening three internet courts to streamline the processing of internet-related cases and applying more technologies in case filing, trials and the enforcement of rulings, it added.