2. Progress and achievements

According to the State Council, the judicial assistance department is responsible for drafting and negotiating conventions on international judicial assistance, treaties on the transfer of prisoners, and conventions on judicial assistance, and providing assistance to foreign judicial agencies in dealing with important cases. The Ministry of Justice is the designated central agency for dealing with affairs related to 115 bilateral treaties of judicial assistance, and the Chinese agency responsible for implementing such international treaties as the Hague Service Convention, the Hague Evidence Convention and the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. As China’s economy develops, along with its society and legal system, the Ministry of Justice continues to make progress, even though it faces an increasing workload related to assistance.

A. Expanding the scope of judicial assistance

As China moves ahead in signing bilateral agreements and adopting international conventions on judicial assistance, it has been able to form a network of international legal cooperation and a legal foundation for its role in judicial assistance. China can handle judicial assistance with more than 140 countries. The countries, with which China has treaties or has cooperated in individual cases, spread across five continents, and the Ministry of Justice, as a key agency for judicial assistance, has played an essential role in negotiating judicial assistance treaties. The ministry took over the responsibility of negotiating the treaty on the transfer of prisoners, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the end of 2005. And, since 2006, it has negotiated treaties on the transfer of prisoners with Spain, Portugal, Australia, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Iran. Those with Spain, Portugal, South Korea and Australia have taken effect, those with Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan have been officially signed, and the treaty with Iran is ready for formal signing. Negotiations with Japan are under way. More than 20 countries have proposed signing treaties regarding the transfer of prisoners.

B. Expanding the fields of judicial assistance

The Ministry of Justice is the main agency to deal with judicial assistance. It has seen a significant increase in the number of requests for assistance, from a dozen in the 1990s to more than 3,000 yearly now. This in turn has lead to the growth of judicial assistance. Since 2000, China have made or received more than 20,000 requests for judicial assistance, involving trade disputes, maritime transport, product quality, liability, insurance, tort matters, divorce, smuggling, corruption, bribery, money laundering, and theft. The number of very complicated criminal cases requiring judicial assistance has grown dramatically, from 72 in 2007 and 91 in 2008 to 261 in 2011. The number of transfers of prisoners has also grown annually and China has transferred more than 30 people under sentence to other countries. Judicial assistance has expanded constantly into new areas and become more complex. The Ministry of Justice has had to handle the serving of judicial documents, investigating cases and collecting evidence, criminal asset confiscation, enforcing civil and commercial judgments, and various criminal proceedings.

C. Effects of judicial assistance improving

Thanks to a combination of the study of theory, experimentation, training, and innovation, the judicial assistance program has kept on improving in service quality and in many other areas. With the framework of treaties and conventions, international cooperation has been productive in the sharing of assets in dealing with criminal cases, and by setting an example for, and offering guidance in, future international cooperation in fighting international crime.

D. A stronger legal foundation for judicial assistance

As China’s legal system improves, a network of domestic laws and regulations on judicial assistance has grown practically out of nothing and continues to make progress, and that, combined with the treaties China has signed internationally, means a good foundation for China’s judicial assistance system. While applying the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Ministry of Justice began drafting the Law of Judicial Assistance in Criminal Matters. In the process, it compiled a large quantity of materials on foreign judicial assistance legislation and sorted through and translated it into Chinese, providing a good foundation for further work. And, with the experience accumulated over years of practice, it has developed internal procedures and protocols to deal with the transfer of prisoners, and has done further research on the subject.

E. Judicial assistance personnel mature

With all theories and practices of these years, the quality and competence of the personnel working in judicial assistance has improved significantly and, in more recent years, they have been able to fulfill their duties actively and effectively, whether in negotiating, signing, or implementing treaties, handling complex cases involving foreign countries, and in a wide range of activities for safeguarding the national interests and rights of people, for further development of judicial assistance in China.

Excerpt from Law Enforcement in the People's Interests - Law Press·China