China’s top court recently unveiled a guideline to help people’s courts better settle administrative disputes with diversified approaches.

The document, with 24 articles divided into five parts, requires people’s courts at all levels to participate in litigation source governance in administrative trials, and makes stipulations on the guiding principle, disputes prevention at the source, front-end resolution, work coordination, as well as support and guarantees for diversified settlement of disputes.

It stipulates that courts should follow the Party’s leadership and the people-oriented principle to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens, legal persons and other organizations, prevent and resolve administrative disputes, and improve the people's livelihoods.

It calls for efforts to govern litigation sources through administrative legislation, decision-making, law enforcement, social management, in-court risk prevention, and law popularization to support a law-abiding general population.

The people's courts are urged to strengthen the mechanism of pre-litigation diversion and mediation. They should guide, encourage and support the parties to adopt non-litigation methods such as administrative reconciliation, reconsideration, mediation or arbitration to solve disputes.

The guideline asks the courts to straighten out the connection between litigation and non-litigation to resolve administrative disputes.

It points out the necessity of establishing and improving mechanisms involving pre-litigation mediation and evidence preservation, judicial confirmation of mediation agreements before litigation, litigation transfer, confirmation of uncontroversial facts, and punishment for insincere mediation.

Meanwhile, the document also stipulates that the mediation should be terminated when the parties have no intention to solve the dispute or insist on filing a lawsuit, the mediation has been delayed for a long time, the handling of the case involves major legal application issues, or the impartiality of the mediation institution itself is questioned. Under those circumstances, the case should be transferred to the litigation procedure according to law.

It also notes that people's courts should launch and optimize their work mechanism in this regard, improve their organization and leadership, ensure the supply of professionals, and seek more policy and financial support from local Party committees and governments in a bid to solve administrative disputes through multiple channels.