Courts across the nation need to take learning and implementing the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) as their top political priority, apply the guidelines to all aspects of the court's work, and ensure a full completion of the annual trial and execution work, said Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), on Oct 31.

Zhou made the remarks while presiding over an extended plenary session of the SPC's leading Party members group, which aimed to analyze the trial and execution work in the first three quarters of the year and make work plans for the next stage.

According to statistics from the SPC, the number of new cases accepted by courts across the nation decreased year on year in the first three quarters, while that of concluded cases saw a year-on-year increase. The quality and efficacy of pre-litigation mediation work have been further improved, and a large number of disputes have been substantially resolved.

Zhou pointed out that courts at all levels have striven to strengthen trial and execution work this year, improved the one-stop diversified dispute resolution and litigation service system, deepened reforms of the judicial system and advanced smart court construction, all of which have fostered a safe and stable political and social environment for the convening of the 20th CPC National Congress.

He reiterated the need to study the recent key speeches by the central leadership and incorporate the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress into all respects of the court's work, and test the results of the study through concrete actions.

He called for the all -round efforts in trial and execution work to serve high-quality development, intensify protection of property rights and intellectual property rights, protect the ecological environment with the most stringent system, and enhance the comprehensive efficacy of the one-stop diversified dispute resolution and litigation service system, in order to safeguard the people's legitimate rights and interests according to the law.

He stressed the need to uphold a strict and fair judiciary and strengthen the fostering of judicial personnel, adding that new issues need to be addressed with reformative perspectives and methods. He also urged courts nationwide to fully and accurately implement the judicial accountability system, and to achieve the high integration, coordination and efficiency of all reform aspects.

Efforts are also needed on smart court construction for higher level digital justice, he said, adding that a resolute application of the filing and registration system is also needed to ensure unblocked filing channels. The strict oversight over judicial staff, as well as on trials administration need to be maintained, and epidemic prevention and control efforts need to be coordinated with trial and execution work, he added.