The Supreme People’s Court abolished its earlier rules on publication of court decisions and enacted a new rule regarding the publication of judiciary information and judgments over Internet. The new rule, called the “Rules of the Supreme People’s Court Concerning the Publication of Judicial Decisions by the People’s Court over the Internet”, will be effective on January 1st, 2014 and can be found on the “Judicial Opinions of China” website (http://www.court.gov.cn/zgcpwsw).
The new rule requires all judicial judgments from all court levels to be published on the mentioned website within 7 days from the effective date of judgment, except for four types: judgments involving (1) state secrets; (2) personal privacy; (3) juvenile crimes; and (4) court approved settlements. And the judgments will be categorized by case type, enabling any person to search for a case by the type, case number or key word. Any personal information will be removed for protection, such as ID numbers, account numbers, trade secrets, and any information involving a juvenile. In addition, certain party names will be anonymous in the following cases: parties of a marital or inheritance dispute; the victim in a criminal case; and defendants in a criminal case receiving a prison sentence of three years or under. Further, the new rule provides that for future litigation, all judiciary information will be available to the parties from the process of filling. The rule also requires every court to establish an institute to take charge of inspecting and uploading the judgments.