Effective litigation key to solving public interest matters

The public interest litigation system has effectively helped resolve problems that trouble the masses, with 756,000 such cases handled in the past five years, with an average annual increase of 14.6 percent, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Protecting the people's interest is at the core of public interest litigation, which is a significant judicial system and a major project of the Party and the State, Hu Weilie, head of the eighth procuratorial office of the SPP, told China Daily in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the ongoing annual two sessions in Beijing.

"The original intention of setting up the procuratorial public interest litigation system, and the practice of the system, is to always adhere to the notion that the people are at the center, and constantly improve the people's sense of gain, happiness and security," he said.

From 2018 to 2022, procuratorates focused on areas that had the most public complaints, and investigated 395,000 public interest cases involving the ecological environment and resource protection, and 154,000 cases in food and drug safety.

Hu said the procuratorates have continued to prudently explore protecting public interests in new areas and strengthened case-handling efforts to protect the rights and interests of specific groups such as the disabled, women and the elderly, as well as the rights and interests of workers in newly emerged industries.

Public interest litigation now covers 13 statutory areas, including ecological environment and resources protection, food and drug safety, State-owned property protection, transfer of State-owned land-use rights, and the protection of minors, women, servicemen, production safety and personal data.

The SPP has also strengthened cooperation with government agencies to form a higher-level joint force for the protection of public interests.

"By improving the system of public participation, governance and sharing, and promoting such working mechanisms as public hearings, roundtable meetings and third-party evaluation, and announcements and services, we have made great efforts to apply the concept of whole-process people's democracy throughout the handling of public interest litigation cases," he said.

Hu said that the system, with distinctive Chinese characteristics, has won wide recognition in the international community due to its efficiency and effectiveness. Participants in international conferences such as the World Conservation Congress and the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, and officials from the procuratorial organs of Vietnam, Mongolia, Belarus and Hungary have highly praised the system.

With authoritative legal supervision, professional personnel and the joint participation of different social sectors and government departments, the system first resolves specific infringements of public interest, and then traces back and rectifies fundamental problems. Eventually, it will promote the improvement of legislation or regulations in the field to plug loopholes, Hu said.

Prosecutors would look back on the problems randomly to check and evaluate if the case had been properly resolved, he added.

"The biggest challenge facing the system is that the existing system cannot fully meet the practical needs. Promoting the legislation on procuratorial public interest litigation is one of the focuses of procuratorial work, and the SPP has set up a leading group to work on it," he said, citing that the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also emphasized improving the system of public interest litigation.

According to the SPP, procuratorial organs will focus on key areas such as the ecological environment and resource protection, food and drug safety, national finance and land, and intensify case handling. They will also enhance the case evaluation mechanism to ensure the quality and efficiency of public interest protection.