People's Court Research Articles

On the Origins of Administrative and Judicial Discretion in Russian Administrative and Jurisdictional Activities

The article continues the discussion organized by the journal with the participation of professors Yuri P. Solovey and Petr P. Serkov on the problem of administrative discretion. The Author proposes to look at the difference between the internal content of administrative discretion and judicial discretion, which is evolutionarily incorporated in the proceedings on administrative offenses. The reader is invited to the conclusion that administrative responsibility has historically been imposed by government bodies for disobedience to the current management order. The authorized body acts on behalf of the public authority, and the responsibility imposed by it means the responsibility of a person to the government for disobedience to its internal policy. In Russia, it arose in the 1920s, when V. I. Lenin considered the people's courts weak in resolving issues of the application of public law penalties to persons who do not comply with the norms established by the Soviet government. The judicial order arose and evolved as a people's revision of the public authorities' initiative for administrative prosecution. Such a reform of administrative responsibility was carried out after the death of I.V. Stalin N. S. Khrushchev, who, trying to restore the lost trust of society in the authorities, believed that administratively punishable acts should cause condemnation not only of the authorities, but also of society. Some categories of cases of administrative offenses were assigned to the competence of the people's court. The court acts on behalf not of the public authority, but of the country as a whole. When imposing a punishment, the court declares the person guilty before the country not of an anti-government, but of an anti-social act. Administrative responsibility is evolutionarily connected with the discretion of the jurisdictional body. Its content is various social rules and values, including principles, as well as political considerations. Administrative discretion is dominated by managerial values: general prevention, ensuring public order, controllability of the masses, tax collection, implementation of state policy, etc. Judicial discretion, being realized on behalf of the country, reproduces the social norms and values of Russian society as a whole. Both legislative norms and managerial values are preserved, but become part of the general range of social norms and values, which is dominated by the universal principles of justice, reasonableness, proportionality and an adequate balance of private and public interests.

Progress and Limitation of China's Foreign-related Civil and Commercial Jurisdiction Procedure

With the developing of economic globalization and the expansion of China's opening to the outside world, Chinese enterprises are becoming more active in cross-border transactions, and the number of disputes is increasing at the same time. In 2022, China released Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning Jurisdiction over Foreign-related Civil and Commercial Cases and Minutes of the National Symposium on the Foreign-related Commercial and Maritime Trial Work of Courts, making new Provisions over Foreign-related civil and commercial jurisdiction. Building on a case analysis and a systematic overview of the two newly issued documents, this article focuses on issues existing in the jurisdiction concerned with civil and commercial foreign-related cases. By referring to foreign legislative experiences and practices in the jurisdiction concerned with civil and commercial foreign-related cases, the author proposes suggestions to improve China's jurisdiction procedures for civil and commercial foreign-related cases, rooted in China's national conditions and realistic needs, for the purpose of strengthening China's existing judicial practice of the application of foreign-related civil laws, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and enterprises in participating in economic globalization, and achieving the coordinated development for both domestic and foreign rule of law.

The Speech as a Crime: Writers under Attack by the People's Court. About the Second Wave of Terror after September 9, 1944

The article examines the grounds, mechanisms and effects of the People's Court, through which the literary and media publicity in Bulgaria was transformed immediately after September 9, 1944, which led to a complete remodeling of the literary field. The general framework of prosecution through the institution of the People's Court is outlined, emphasizing how the written or spoken word becomes a criminal act and turns the writer and/or journalist into a criminal, and in the context of „people's justice“ turns its author in „public enemy“. Various cases of writers and journalists who were killed „without trial and sentence“, examples of writers who were convicted as ministers, as well as intellectuals who were brought before the Sixth Chamber of the People's Court were cited. The total number of convicted writers and journalists in Bulgaria in the winter and spring of 1945 is estimated at 150-170 people. Entire groups of authors disappear from the literary and media fields, and several ideological-thematic tendencies and genre-stylistic characteristics of literature fall into the zone of prohibition.

Exploration on the Effectiveness of Incidental Review of Normative Documents

The newly revised Administrative Procedure Law in 2014 established an incidental review system for normative documents of administrative litigation in China. The establishment of this system is a great progress under the background of legal construction in Socialism with Chinese characteristics, which has shifted the boundary between administrative power and judicial power. Based on the legislative intent and extensive case data, this paper analyzes the present situation of incidental review of normative documents, so as to further explore the dilemma that the results of incidental review of normative documents are not binding on other courts and the enforcement effect of incidental review of normative documents is weak. Based on the practical experience of normative review system in developed countries, this paper puts forward three solutions: establishing guiding cases, information circulation within the judicial system and establishing the revocation system of people's courts, in order to understand the effectiveness of incidental review of normative documents more deeply.

Antisuit injunctions in SEP disputes and the recent EU's WTO/TRIPS case against China

AbstractThe existence of standard essential patents (SEPs)—and the associated litigation—has potentially disruptive consequences for the manufacture, marketing and distribution of complex products that incorporate many patented standards, for example, information and communication technology (ICT) products such as smartphones that incorporate a camera, video, web browser, wireless communications, text messaging, and so on, as well as an increasing number of ‘connected’ Internet of Things products such as wearable devices and ‘smart home’ devices. Indeed, SEP owners may use the patent enforcement system to prevent implementers of these technologies from bringing to market competing products that use the same standards. As is known, this raises concerns about competition in the market and the need to maintain interoperability to ensure the development of the ICT industry. One of the legal tools which can be used by implementers to (try to) neutralise SEP holders' anticompetitive behaviours is the ‘antisuit injunction’ (ASI). ASIs are not uncommon in common law jurisdictions while they are foreign to civil law countries within the European Union (EU). ASIs are particularly useful to SEP implementers when patent holders disrespect their commitment to license their patents on a FRAND basis. For example, a judge who is in the process of assessing whether the SEP owner complies with FRAND terms may at the same time grant an ASI to stop the patentee taking patent infringement actions in other jurisdictions until the FRAND litigation has been concluded. In February 2022, the EU filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO), arguing that China's use of ASIs prevents EU‐based companies from properly protecting their SEPs. Indeed, ASIs have recently been granted in several Chinese disputes, including in Huawei v Conversant and Xiaomi v. InterDigital. More specifically, China's Supreme People's Court held that Chinese courts can use ASIs to prevent SEP owners from filing disputes in any foreign courts to enforce their patents; and that anyone who does not comply with the injunction should be fined €130,000 per day. In the WTO case the EU notes that such a case law jeopardises innovation and growth in Europe, ‘effectively depriving European technology companies of the possibility to exercise and enforce the rights that give them a technological edge’. From a legal perspective, according to the EU, China's conduct is in violation of various Trade‐Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) provisions, including Article 28 which grants exclusive rights to patent owners. The paper focuses on this EU–China WTO/TRIPS dispute and more generally, on the relevance of ASIs within SEP cases.

How to achieve emission reduction without hindering economic growth? The role of judicial quality

Existing literature has carried out fruitful research on the effects of environmental regulation policies. Due to differences in policies, regions, and data analysis methods, however, the previous studies have not reached a consensus on the effects of environmental regulation policies, especially on the effects of environmental regulation policies of developing countries from the perspective of environmental justice. This paper takes the establishment of the environmental court in China's intermediate people's court as a quasi-natural experiment and uses the multi-period difference-in-differences method to examine the effect of the establishment of the environmental court on environmental governance and economic performance, based on the panel data of 284 cities in China from 2003 to 2019. The results show that the establishment of the environmental court can significantly reduce the emission intensity of industrial SO2 in the short term. This reduction effect is resulted from the joint emission reduction effect of the establishment of the environmental court on local cities and adjacent cities. The mechanism analysis shows that the establishment of the environmental court has the dual effect of emission reduction without hindering economic growth. This effect is mainly achieved by improving energy efficiency, stimulating green technology innovation, increasing environmental investment, and improving the green finance level. Furthermore, the emission reduction effect of the establishment of the environmental court shows differential effects under the constraints of regional rule-of-law level, environmental awareness, fiscal pressure, and level of innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition, the establishment of the environmental court can facilitate the achievement of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.

An Attempt at Historical and Legal Analysis of the Activities of the VI Section of the So-Called People's Court in March 1945

The aim of this article is to reveal the judicial and extra-judicial factors of the trial of the VI section of the “People’s Court” in Sofia, held in the spring of 1945. The emphasis is on the legal framework, the manner of the trial, the procedure violations and the judicial and extra-judicial mechanisms used to achieve specific results, corresponding to the political goals of this trial aimed at convicting people associated with the pro-German propaganda in Bulgaria during World War II. The study applies the historical-legal method. The factors determining the trial are analyzed, as well as the penal and repressive role of the trial itself in establishing the power of the Fatherland Front after the coup of 9 September 1944.

Thinking about the current situation of "smart court" construction in the 5G era

Today, with the accelerated process of economic globalization and the rule of law in the country, especially since the 18th National Congress, the rule of law has become a hot topic. The era of "smart courts" has come. Under the leadership of the Supreme People's Court, the construction of smart courts has accumulated a lot of experience, but at the same time, some problems have also been exposed, such as the prominent phenomenon of emphasizing construction over application, the threat to the security of court network information, and so on. There are two ways to solve the problem. One is to optimize the new legal service system based on the existing technology. However, this method may face technical difficulties that cannot be overcome. Therefore, it is a bold attempt to adopt the new generation of communication technology. Based on this, this paper aims to combine the unique advantages of 5G independent networking with the current smart legal service system, and consider how to build a smart court in the new era from the perspective of the grass-roots people's court, so as to promote the improvement of our grass-roots legal construction system.

The impact of COVID-19 on Real estate and consumer behavior based on SPSS analysis

Since the Spring Festival of 2020, the rapid spread of COVID-19 has a serious impact on real estate enterprises. According to the Supreme People's Court, a total of 408 real estate companies filed for bankruptcy in 2020, up 8.2 percent year on year. It is worth mentioning that there are many well-known real estate companies on the bankruptcy list since the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, a questionnaire survey was conducted on the willingness of residents to purchase houses and their choice of real estate enterprises since the epidemic. SPSS software was used for data modeling and analysis, and the comparison was made before the epidemic. Meanwhile, a case study is conducted on the financing capacity and earnings of Country Garden, Vanke and Sunny City Real Estate from 2019 to 2021. Overall, residents’ choice of real estate enterprises has changed greatly since the outbreak, and the economy of real estate enterprises has been deeply affected. Therefore, based on the repeated situation of COVID-19, the economic choices of real estate enterprises and consumers deserve further study, and relevant policy suggestions are put forward accordingly. These results shed light on guiding further exploration of real estate enterprises risk management and residents investment decisions.

The Status and Role of the Primary People's Court in the Judicial Reform Pilot

With the development of society, China's judicial policies have been improving and reforming, in the process of judicial reform, it is necessary to study and investigate the people's courts at all levels, so in order to be more relevant to the reality of justice, it is necessary to carry out pilot work in different courts, primary people's courts are more grassroots, which encountered many problems, for the entire judicial reform also plays a very important role. The problems encountered by the lower people's courts are very important to the overall judicial reform. This paper focuses on the status and role of the lower people's courts in the pilot judicial reform.

Research on Data Integration of Overseas Discrete Archives From the Perspective of Digital Humanities

The digitization of displaced archives is of great historical and cultural significance. Through the construction of digital humanistic platforms represented by MISS Platform, and the comprehensive application of IIIF technology, knowledge graph technology, ontology technology, and other popular information technologies. We can find that the digital framework of displaced archives built through the MISS platform can promote the establishment of a standardized cooperation and dialogue mechanism between the archives’ authorities and other government departments. At the same time, it can embed the works of archives in the construction of digital government and the economy, promote the exploration of the integration of archives management, data management, and information resource management, and ultimately promote the construction of a digital society. By fostering a new partnership between archives departments and enterprises, think tanks, research institutes, and industry associations, the role of multiple social subjects in the modernization process of the archives governance system and governance capacity will be brought into play. The National Archives Administration has launched a special operation to recover scattered archives overseas, drawing up a list and a recovery action plan for archives lost to overseas institutions and individuals due to war and other reasons. Through the National Archives Administration, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Justice, specific recovery work is carried out by studying and working on international laws.

Trybunał Ludowy jako organ wymiaru (nie)sprawiedliwości III Rzeszy

The article describes issues related to the establishment and activity of the People's Court – a German criminal court existing in the years 1934–1945 adjudicating mainly in political cases. This paper presents and discusses the genesis and constitution of the Court, the proceedings before it, the scope of its material and local jurisdiction, and the role it played in practice. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the position of the People’s Court evolved gradually over time, and not only its composition changed, but also the scope of its jurisdiction, which was constantly being expanded to cover more and more crimes. The work is also partly devoted to the presentation of the judges adjudicating in the Court and their post-war fate. Despite the important role played by the People's Court in the justice system of the Third Reich, the subject of its existence has not been explored in detail in Polish literature. Previous publications primarily referred to foreign literature, generally omitting the analysis of legal acts. For this reason, this work uses not only the historical and legal method, but also the formal and dogmatic method, making extensive references to normative acts of statutory and sub-statutory rank constituting the basis for the activity of the Court.

The 2022 Revision of China's Anti-Monopoly Law: Global Antitrust Institute Comments on Draft Provisions of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China Concerning Application of the Law in Civil Disputes Arising from Monopolistic Conduct

The 2022 Revision of China's Anti-Monopoly Law: Global Antitrust Institute Comments on Draft Provisions of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China Concerning Application of the Law in Civil Disputes Arising from Monopolistic Conduct

ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ СИСТЕМЫ РЕВОЛЮЦИОННЫХ ТРИБУНАЛОВ НА ТЕРРИТОРИИ СРЕДНЕГО ПОВОЛЖЬЯ В 1917 – 1923 ГГ.

The article is devoted to the first measures of the Bolsheviks government aimed to combat crime and ensure the defense of the proletarian regime, the formation of the extraordinary judicial bodies, i.e., revolutionary tribunals, which marked the beginning of the establishment of the Soviet legal system. The relevance of the article is due to the need for an objective analysis of the historical experience of creating the system of revolutionary tribunals, and to the presence of "blank spots" in the historiography of the formation of the system of extraordinary bodies of the Middle Volga region during the Civil War. Comprehensive analysis of the formation of revolutionary tribunals on the territory of the Middle Volga region in 1917 – 1923 is based on the previously unknown materials from the State Archive of the Ulyanovsk region, the State Archive of Contemporary history of the Ulyanovsk region, the State Archive of the Saratov region, the State Archive of the Penza region and the Central State Archive of the Samara region. The authors examine the formation and legal status of extraordinary judicial bodies, as well as their permanent reorganization, and come to the conclusion that the process of formation of the system of revolutionary tribunals was implemented by local party structures. Under the conditions of socio-economic and political crisis, the revolutionary tribunals quickly turned into effective judicial bodies and functioned until the end of the Civil War, when they were reorganized into People's courts.

Спекуляция аннулированными белогвардейскими деньгами: омский казус 1920 г.

This article analyzes an incident of speculation on withdrawn White Guard banknotes that took place in Omsk in the first months of the Soviet power restoration. It is of interest both from the standpoint of the history of finance and currency and from that of the history of law and urban everyday life. Illegal actions suppressed in 1920 by the Soviet police are spiced up by the fact that the main defendants were representatives of Eastern European peoples who, for various reasons, found themselves in Omsk: the Ukrainian, the Hungarian, the German, and the Chinese. Moreover, the “Chinese track,” notorious in the Siberian economy of the era, had actually created conditions for this rare type of speculation. The study draws on unpublished documents identified by the author in an archival criminal case considered in 1920 by the People's Court of the 1st section of the Omsk uezd of the Omsk uezd bureau of justice. They are stored in the Historical Archive of the Omsk Region in the fond of above mentioned judicial body. The methodological basis of the study is anthropological and systematic approaches, as well as problem-chronological method. This theoretical corpus enables to follow the logic of developments in the region’s socio-economic sphere as fully as possible and to explain the causes of the crime, bringing them into correlation with certain people who acted in specific historical situation of the military revolutionary period. The considered episode is unique and revealing in a number of ways. It characterizes the life of the West Siberian townspeople at the final stage of the Civil War in Russia and demonstrates what sophisticated measures the population (including former prisoners of the First World War, refugees, numerous representatives of underclass) was forced to take in order to survive. The case allows us to assess the peculiarities of the work of law enforcement and justice during Soviet power restoration in Western Siberia. This publication may be of interest to a wide range of readers: specialists in Russian finance and currency, Soviet law enforcement system, population’s adaptation to social cataclysms, and Siberian everyday life during the Civil War in Russia.

The Practice and Improvement of Criminal Reconciliation in Grassroots People's Courts

The Practice and Improvement of Criminal Reconciliation in Grassroots People's Courts

On the systematic construction of special correctional education for juveniles who have committed crimes

For the education and correction of juvenile delinquents, the provisions in the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency are too broad, lack correct theoretical guidance and specific rule design, resulting in conflicts between administrative power and judicial power in special correctional education in practice, infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of minors. In terms of decision-making procedures, it is clarified that the people's courts are the decision-making organs specializing in correctional education; in the relief procedures, the obligation of participating organs to inform is strictly implemented, and a hearing system is added to protect minors' right to participate; and two-way reversal mechanisms between different handling measures are set up in enforcement procedures. the obligation to inform the participating organs is strictly enforced, and the hearing system is added to protect minors' right to participate; and in the enforcement procedures, a two-way reversal mechanism between different punishment measures is set up.

Big Data Analysis Report on Trial of Medical Damage Liability Dispute Cases in China in 2021

Objective: To analyze the trial process and results of the 2021 medical damage liability dispute cases based on big data to understand the basic situation of the current medical damage liability dispute cases. Methods: The judgment documents of people's courts published from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 were retrieved and searched through the website of China Judgment Documents, and then the relevant data were collected. Results: According to the data summary and data discussion in the same year, the geographical distribution of cases, the characteristics of the defendant's medical structure, the distribution of litigation departments and other data were summarized. Conclusion: According to the results of the basic investigation, the basic characteristics of our current medical dispute cases have been understood, but also the division of responsibility and the problems have been analyzed on the whole, and the corresponding suggestions have been put forward according to the questions, hope to help.

Research of the influence of automobile purchase restriction policy on the pricing of motor vehicles in judicial appraisal enterprises

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to take second-hand vehicles at judicial auctions in China as the primary research direction and to explore the impact of purchasing restriction policy and city size on the relationship between the appraisal price and transaction price of second-hand motor vehicles in the context of auto purchase restriction in China from a microscopic angle. It attempts to broaden the pricing ideas of judicial appraisal enterprises in providing appraisal prices of second-hand motor vehicles and to put forward suggestions for the optimization of appraisal prices and appraisal standards of judicial appraisal enterprises.Design/methodology/approachWith the help of Python, this paper crawls 59,038 lines of valid data from three leading internet judicial auction platforms, namely “Ali Auction,” “China Beijing Equity Exchange” and “Gong Pai Wang,” as research samples. Besides, this paper forms a database containing judicial auction used car appraisal prices, transaction prices, motor vehicle purchase restrictions and whether the motor vehicle carries a license plate. By constructing a multiple regression model, the impact of automobile purchase restriction policy on the price of motor vehicles appraised by judicial appraisal enterprises is investigated.FindingsWith the help of the multivariate regression model, it found that under the same condition, the city where the auction took place implemented the automobile purchase restriction before the end of the auction. The court has specified that the buyer could directly obtain the license plate after the auction. The transaction price and the evaluation price ratio will be statistically larger, which proves that the license plate has an evident value in the transaction and is traded as subject matter by the residents, and consequently brings a higher premium to the price of automobile transaction in internet judicial auction. Meanwhile, the purchase restriction policy in the first-tier cities has resulted in a significant premium on automobile license plates, which is much higher than the automobile license plate premium level in non-first-tier cities under the same conditions.Social implicationsCar ownership continues to rise with rapid economic development worldwide. Control the growth of car ownership, some countries and regions mainly restrict the issuance of motor vehicle license plates, which indirectly leads to vehicle license plate indicators becoming a scarce resource. National laws permit judicial auction as a means for the people's courts to settle creditors' claims in enforcement procedures of civil cases. In the judicial auction process, the People's Court introduces third-party evaluation enterprises to appraise, assess and audit the subject and obtain the appraisal price, which guides the bidding behavior of used car buyers and indirectly affects the transaction price of used cars.Originality/valueAs the only subject capable of assessing the value of used cars at judicial auctions, judicial appraisal enterprises have received widespread attention for their appraisal results. This paper researches this field by screening the factors affecting the ratio of motor vehicle transaction price to the appraised price. It also analyzes how the ratio of motor vehicle transaction price to appraised price is affected by motor vehicle purchase restrictions and the situation with license plates. This paper examines the existence of premiums for motor vehicle transactions with license plates, evaluates the purchase restrictions in cities with motor vehicle purchase restrictions and verifies that the premiums for motor vehicles at judicial auctions are affected by purchase restriction policies as well as the influence of city class. These studies have important implications for judicial appraisal enterprises to establish reasonable appraisal mechanisms and optimize appraisal prices. They also provide new ideas and methods for appraisal enterprises to assess the value of used vehicles at judicial auctions.

Criminal sanctions on identity theft in Shanghai: An empirical case law analysis

This article aims to examine the actual severity of criminal sanctions on identity theft imposed by Shanghai courts, which entails an analysis of the effects of eight factors on the probability of imprisonment, probation and the length of imprisonment/detention in 507 Shanghai courts' judgements. Since the Supreme People's Court promulgated the Judicial Interpretation on sanctioning identity theft crimes in 2017, the severity of criminal punishment substantially increased. Judges seemed to have considerable discretion to deviate from the sentencing criteria set by the Criminal Code and the 2017 Judicial Interpretation. Judges' discretion indicates a gap between formal criminal law and its enforcement. A more coordinated legal framework of personal information protection that contains criminal law, administrative law and civil law might be more effective in fighting identity theft. It could be meaningful to adjust the existing sentencing criteria and give judges full play to explore the sensitiveness of personal information.