Courts offer greater transparency and supervision of officials

In the past 12 months, the Supreme People's Court, China's top judicial body, has improved judicial openness and introduced greater supervision of legal officers, paving the way for the public to "see" how the nation's courts work, according to leading officials.

In November, the court established a judicial database designed to improve transparency and ensure the accuracy of information disclosed by the courts.

"We must make sure every piece of data we release to the public is accurate, because it has great importance to the quality of the legal services a person can be given," said Xu Jianfeng, director of the court's information center.

By the end of October, the database, which acts as a fundamental source of legal information for the nation's courts, contained information about more than 90 million cases from 3,519 courts nationwide, and the volume of data is still rising, according to Xu.

"We have compiled data from every court, such as how many cases were filed and concluded. We have made public as much information as possible about cases that should be readily available under the law, but we have not released information about cases involving people's personal privacy or State secrets. The new database will help us to monitor courts that have failed to disclose or have selectively disclosed data that should be open to everyone under the law," he added.

Xu compared the database to an information hub for the nation's courts because it provides a point of connection with the four online platforms operated by the Supreme People's court.

Since 2013, the court has made it more convenient for lawyers and the general public to research details of concluded cases, bring lawsuits, identify convicted people who fail to abide by judgments and watch trials on its online platforms.

"Our aim is to make our courts more intelligent, so they can provide better legal services for litigants and improve the justice system through greater transparency," said Zhou Qiang, the president of the Supreme People's Court.