Chinese courts publish judgement documents online

SHENZHEN - Judgement documents from more than 3,000 courts across China will be accessible and searchable through an online database, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said on Wednesday.

Judgement documents will be published through a website set up by the SPC at www.court.gov.cn/zgcpwsw, according to an SPC statement issued after a meeting on judicial transparency held in the city of Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province.

The SPC and all provincial high courts have already published their judgement documents on the website.

The SPC aims to publish judgement documents from courts at all levels on the website, but this will take some time to accomplish, the statement said.

The SPC pledged that it will publish as many judgement documents as law allows and minimize the exceptions.

"We will not intentionally set up barriers," the statement said.

By publishing judgement documents, the SPC said it expected that public supervision will promote justice and push judges to improve their work.

As another measure to promote the transparency of courts, the SPC asked courts at all levels to inform parties and the public about court proceedings through "a platform," which could be a website, microblog and WeChat accounts, mobile phone texts or voice mail.

Courts will publicize open trials through videos, audio, photos, texts and microblogs, the statement said.

Courts should allow parties of a lawsuit to follow the proceedings through a computer system and videotape all proceedings so that parties can view them.

Courts have also been asked to publish information on execution of judgements at their websites or through other channels so that parties of lawsuits and the public will know what steps courts have taken to implement judgements.