Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), stressed the need to further propel smart court construction and internet-based judicial work, in a bid to modernize the trial system and capacity and provide strong judicial services for the Chinese path to modernization.

He made those remarks while attending the eighth national court work conference on network security and informatization, which was held via video link on Nov 30.

The eighth national court work conference on network security and informatization is held via video link on Nov 30, 2022. [Photo/court.gov.cn]

Zhou noted that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), people's courts have striven to achieve justice for the people in every case they handle, reformed the judicial system and built the smart court, which has achieved the preliminary modernization of the trial system and capacity. In the past decade, all courts have intensified smart court construction and internet-based judicial work, promoted the comprehensive optimization of judicial models and litigation system, he added.

At present, the smart court has achieved the online handling of all judicial affairs with open and lawful process and all-round intelligent services, which together with the internet-based judiciary, has played a significant role in serving the country's high-quality development, social governance and has enhanced the country's international judicial credibility, according to Zhou.

Zhou pointed out that the 20th CPC National Congress made major plans to build China into a cyber power and raised specific requirements for accelerating the building of a socialist judicial system that is fair, efficient and authoritative. He urged courts at all levels to thoroughly grasp the guidelines of the congress and understand that smart court construction and the internet-based judiciary aims to build a socialist judicial system, to meet the people's expectations for a better life,  to achieve the goal of socialist modernization, and to build a higher-level rule of law.

He emphasized the need to deepen smart court construction, promote the deep integration of sci-tech innovation and judicial work, grasp the laws of justice and the internet, focus more on tackling issues in judicial practice in order to maximize judicial efficacy, and build a digital judicial ecology that is open, healthy and safe.

In terms of the internet-based judiciary, Zhou reiterated the need to deepen innovation in the internet trial mechanism, fully implement the three sets of rules for online litigation, mediation and operation, appropriately handle new types of internet-related cases in accordance with the law, improve internet judgement rules, and fully tap the role of the internet judiciary in serving the unified national market and the healthy development of the digital economy.