The guiding role of typical and instructional cases should be given full play in supporting courts nationwide to improve their  judgment execution, Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), said at a meeting on Jan 13.

He called for efforts to strengthen guidance on cases, ensure unified standards for judgment, promote the correct implementation of laws, in order to achieve strict and fair justice and ensure that the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.

Acknowledging that courts nationwide have tried a number of cases with wide social impact and achieved good results, Zhou said they have intensified efforts in execution, promoted core socialist values, protected property rights and the legitimate rights and interests of private entrepreneurs, prevented and defused financial risks, corrected unjust and wrong cases, and handled a number of typical and instructional cases, which played a guiding, demonstrative and educational role in case trials.

Zhou spoke highly of China's case guidance system and gave suggestions on system improvement.

It is necessary to optimize the work mechanism and strengthen overall coordination, he said. The SPC should build a work mechanism with relevant departments and higher people's courts nationwide are urged to compile and issue reference cases to guide the trial and execution work at the courts under their jurisdictions, Zhou noted.

He highlighted the importance of summarizing and refinement of judicial practices, the reasoning statements of judicial documents, theoretical researches of senior judges, experts and scholars, and expanding the source of guiding cases.

Zhou stressed that integration of resources and joint efforts are needed in case review and demonstration. As for encouraging more reference to guiding cases, he said judges should first search for currently effective guiding cases and take them as references while giving verdict.

In addition, the development of smart courts, a guiding case information platform, as well as a strong team of judicial personnel, will support the development of the case guidance system, he added.