The Court System of China in the Digital Age: Main Developmet Ditections

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the process of introducing digital technologies into the work of the People’s Courts of China and the issues of its legal regulation. The judicial system of the modern Chinese state is based on courts of three levels and two courts. Judicial bodies include the Supreme People’s Court, local people's courts, military courts and other special courts. For several years, various digital technologies have been used in all Chinese courts. In addition, since August 2017, special Internet courts have appeared in the PRC (three such courts have now been created in Hangzhou, Beijing and Guangzhou), which consider civil, administrative and criminal cases online without the personal presence of participants. The use of digital technologies in the judicial system of the PRC contributes to its transparency, reducing corruption, combating the spread of coronavirus, increasing the general level of legal literacy of the people. So, the creation of a unified platform for online broadcasting of court hearings online, the public disclosure of court sentences (decisions, rulings) in various categories of cases allows society to control the activities of the people's courts of the country. Considering the case online during the confrontation of the coronavirus epidemic prevents the spread of infection among participants in the process. The experience of China in the large-scale implementation of digital technologies in judicial activity is not only of scientific interest, but also important from a practical point of view for the Russian expert community. The Russian Federation has also embarked on the path of using digital technologies in litigation, but China is following it ahead of the schedule, which is important in terms of studying the results it has achieved and the mistakes made so that the Russian legislator can take them into account in their law-making activities. It is also important that China, in the process of digitalizing its national system, uses exclusively national platforms and databases. Access to information by foreign intelligence services is not possible. The main providers of digital services for the judicial system are also national corporations, which legally have the status of private companies, but in fact they are completely controlled by the СРС.