The Supreme People's Court (SPC) released a document on Dec 5 for the implementation of a judicial accountability mechanism.

The document require new operation mechanism of judicial power, management of adjudication supervision, a punishment system and measures of reform related to judicial accountability.

According to the document, courts at various levels should focus on resolving problems of judicial accountability and keep improving the running system of judicial power. Courts should improve teamwork of the justices and distribute cases based on each judge’s aptitude.

Optimizing a meeting system for professional justices and a judicial committee system will also contribute to maintaining trial justice and fairness.

The document require wide adoption of informationization in adjudication supervision management and establishment of an accountability tracing mechanism as well as optimization of a risk control system pertaining to preventing corruption in the judiciary.

Training and cultivating judicial assistants and optimizing appraisal systems for judicial personnel are also mentioned in the guidelines.

In addition, courts should continue pushing forward judicial reforms and enhance transparency of court proceedings and legal documents.