Making judiciary more efficient

Less attention has been paid to the internal administration of judicial authorities, but its negative impact on judicial independence cannot be ignored. In procuratorates and courts, administrative officials wield influential power in some trials, preventing judges and procurators from independently handling cases according to law. In many cases, subordinate judicial authorities have to follow the instructions of superior judicial authorities, with the latter always having the final say in a trial.

To ensure judicial authorities' organizational and operational independence, external as well as internal administrative intervention in the judicial system has to be curbed. And to reduce external intervention in the judicial system, local governments' control over judicial authorities' finance, facilities and resources have to be reduced.

The plenum document, to reduce local governments' intervention in the judicial system, advocates unifying the management of officials and properties of courts and procuratorates below the provincial level and explores appropriate separation of the jurisdictions of courts and administrative divisions.

But these reform measures probably will not reduce internal administrative intervention in the judicial system. Instead, internal intervention could intensify if provincial governments establish a unified management for judicial authorities' finance and properties. Some people are even worried that provincial courts could intervene in local courts' work if a unified management for local courts' finance, wages and welfare is established.

To reduce internal administrative intervention in the judicial system, judges and procurators should be given the power to independently handle cases according to law, and the supervision on the exercise of judicial and procuratorial power must be strengthened. And rights and duties of departments and officials should be clearly defined.

There is, therefore, a need to establish a three-tier system. First, it has to be made explicit that judges and procurators have the right to handle cases independently according to law, and will be responsible for their judgments. This will give judges enough reason to resist any interference, because they have to account for their judicial work.

Second, it is important to strengthen the restriction and supervision mechanism for the exercise or judicial power.

Third, trials and judicial management work should be separated. And judges and procuratorates should be given professional rather than administrative ranks according to their professional qualification and experience to free them of the dependence on external organizations.

In a nutshell, to free the judicial system of external intervention, the management of judicial authorities' finance and properties should be unified.

And to ensure that the judicial system enjoys internal independence, reform has to be initiated in the judicial authorities' internal system. The goal of these two reforms is to establish a unified mechanism of authority and responsibility for judges and procurators.

The author is a professor of Peking University Law School.

(China Daily 12/31/2013 page9)