Zhou Qiang, president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) and chief justice, held talks with Tatu Leppänen, president of the Supreme Court of Finland, via video link on Dec 13.

Zhou said the relationship between China and Finland has developed steadily and cooperation in various fields has been fruitful. The top courts of the two countries have conscientiously implemented the strategic consensus reached by the two heads of state, maintained close contacts at high judicial levels, continued to deepen judicial exchanges and cooperation, and continuously achieved new developments in high-level friendly and cooperative relations.

Zhou introduced China's judicial measures coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of smart courts in the country.

China's SPC has fully exerted its role of carrying out adjudication, launched supportive measures for judicial services and punished pandemic-realted crimes, safeguarding people's lives and health and providing quality judicial services in the process of coordinating epidemic control with economic and social development, said Zhou.

Courts in China have comprehensively promoted the development of smart courts. They have released online litigation rules and tried cases online in an effective and timely manner. The courts have achieved good results in advancing deep integration of modern technologies and court work, building an online judicial model with Chinese characteristics, and speeding up modernization of the adjudication system and capability, said Zhou.

Zhou said China's top court is willing to make joint efforts with the top court of Finland to explore judicial measures responding to the regular pandemic prevention and control, to deepen practical cooperation in areas including information technology application and to improve the regular judicial exchange mechanism so that the two top courts will make positive contributions to the friendly development of China-Finland relations, and provide fine judicial services for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Leppänen said the top courts of China and Finland carried out a series of fruitful cooperation, promoting judicial work in both countries and making positive contributions to the healthy development of bilateral relations. He expressed his hope for the top court of Finland to further strengthen mutual exchanges and share helpful experience with China's top court in order to advance the two countries' judicial practical cooperation to a new level in a joint effort.

He also shared practices and experiences of Finnish courts in coping with the pandemic, saying that courts in Finland sticked to their responsibilities and missions, duly played their roles and cracked down on crimes related to the pandemic. The courts have protected legislative rights and interests of parties concerned, provided judicial relief in time and made full use of legal means to guarantee a sound social order. All the efforts have achieved good results, said Leppänen.

The representative of the top judge of Finland's top court introduced the progress of its judicial digitalization.

The both sides also had in-depth exchanges on issues such as judicial publicity and maritime judiciary.

Zhou Qiang, president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) and chief judge, Holds talks with Tatu Leppänen, president of the Supreme Court of Finland, via video link on Dec 13.

Zhou Qiang, president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) and chief judge, Holds talks with Tatu Leppänen, president of the Supreme Court of Finland, via video link on Dec 13.