IT’S important to achieve justice and it’s more important to achieve it in a visible way. Located in the downtown area of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Futian District is trying to build itself into an international, intelligent and high-quality pioneering urban region, and accordingly has set higher standards for transparency in its judicial process.

    With the higher standards in mind and being well aware of the new trends toward information-based, open societies, Futian District People’s Court has adopted a new concept of “letting every citizen perceive justice and fairness in every single court case,” and opened up its judicial procedures on a larger scale.

    Open selections

    In July 2012, Futian District People’s Court made a breakthrough in its judge appointment process that coincided with the reform of presiding judges’ responsibilities. The new effort to openly select presiding judges and subordinate judges is a further step to implement judicial transparency, and serves as a new approach to ensuring judicial credibility.

    In July 2012 and August 2013, 40 presiding judges and 20 junior judges were appointed by a selection committee consisting of lawmakers, political advisers, lawyers, legal experts and scholars. Judges were only appointed after strict scrutiny of candidates’ moral character, work performance, professional proficiency and social experience.

    Characteristic service

    As a first step toward judicial transparency, the court strives to provide high-quality, efficient judicial services for citizens. It has undertaken a series of public events such as promoting laws and regulations in residential communities, enterprises and government organs, as well as lectures on laws and regulations by presiding judges, all of which have been well received by citizens.

    It also has held seminars at financial institutions, community shareholding companies, department stores and other entities to enhance standard business operations, thus fostering a positive environment for the district’s economic development.

    The court has also held circuit and mock court sessions for government officials, law enforcement officers, members of the entertainment industry and civil mediators, to promote the court’s image.

    Improving open trials

    The court also will implement judicial transparency by giving prominence to court trials and judgment procedures, two procedures that the public and parties involved in legal cases are concerned with most.

    It will strive to make final verdicts or rulings public. Almost all of the final verdicts or rulings in labor and intellectual property right disputes in the first half of 2013 have been made available online. The public can have full access to judgment documents on the court’s official website, www.ftcourt.gov.cn, except for those involving State secrets, commercial secrets or personal privacy issues, which are off-limits to public access.

    The Futian court’s official website has opened a special column to display its court trials. Netizens can watch court trials in real time through a randomly selected litigation broadcast every day, live online. The move is expected to make the official website an effective platform to enhance social supervision.

    International vision

    The Futian court has been increasingly aware that a rising number of expatriates and Chinese nationals from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have had need of judicial services.

    The court has taken several measures to raise its international image, such as making English-language indicators and gate plates to help expatriates and residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan locate its offices.

    Expatriates and residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan can also refer to bilingual pretrial instructions. A litigation service center with the court provides explanations in English and Cantonese. To ensure expatriates and residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have full litigation rights, experienced judges with good command of English will be appointed to handle related legal cases, including reminding expatriates about possible risks, pretrial instructions and explanations of reasoning behind verdicts and rulings. (Xie Ting)

    About Futian’s court

    FUTIAN District People’s Court was established in 1990. Shangbu Courthouse, established in 1983, was its predecessor.

    The Futian court has 411 judicial staff members and two primary locations: the main building in the courtyard of the Futian District CPC Committee’s office building at 123 Fumin Road, and a supporting facility in Jindi Industrial Park on Fuqiang Road.

    The downtown Shenzhen court handled more than 30,000 cases in 2009 and has accepted more than 35,000 cases in every year since. The total amount of money involved in cases resolved by the court amounted to more than 6 billion yuan (US$980 million) in each of the past three years. In 2012, the court topped other district-level courts in the city by resolving cases involving a total of nearly 8.6 billion yuan.