China courts get smarter, more convenient

People can get quicker access to a broader range of legal services now that Chinese courts have become “smarter” due to the adoption of more technological applications, a blue book said last week.

By the end of last year, 98 percent of courts across the country had opened websites offering residents litigation-related services, according to The Blue Book on Rule of Law: Informatization of Chinese Courts, which was jointly issued on Wednesday by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Law and the Social Sciences Academic Press.

That means litigants can initiate lawsuits either offline or online in almost every court nationwide.

Thanks to the building of smart courts, trials and the enforcement of rulings were not greatly affected during the outbreak, the Supreme People’s Court, China’s top court, said in its annual work report, which was released last month.

More technologies, including artificial intelligence and blockchain, have been applied to judicial affairs, the report said.

But Lyu said many areas still need to be improved. “For instance, similar judicial data on different online platforms should be integrated,” he said. Otherwise, such scattered portals or sites for litigants and their lawyers may not be convenient.”

News from: Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China.