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supreme people 's court

Guiding opinions on unifying the application of laws and strengthening the retrieval of similar cases

In order to unify the application of law and enhance the judicial credibility, the following opinions are put forward on the retrieval of cases of the people's court in combination with the actual judicial work.

1、 The category of cases mentioned in this opinion refers to the cases which are similar to the pending cases in basic facts, focus of dispute, application of law and so on, and have been judged and effective by the people's court.

2、 If a case handled by a people's court has one of the following circumstances, it shall conduct a retrieval of similar cases:

（1） It is proposed to submit it to a meeting of professional (presiding) judges or a judicial committee for discussion;

（2） Lack of clear rules of judgment or no unified rules of judgment have been formed;

（3） The president or the chief judge of a court conducts retrieval of similar cases according to the requirements of the jurisdiction of judicial supervision and administration;

（4） Other cases that need to be searched.

Third, the judge should rely on the China judicial document network and the trial case database to search for similar cases, and be responsible for the authenticity and accuracy of the retrieval.

4、 The retrieval scope of similar cases generally includes:

（1） Guiding cases issued by the Supreme People's court;

（2） Typical cases issued by the Supreme People's court and the cases in which the judgment takes effect;

（3） Reference cases issued by the higher people's Court of the province (autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government) and cases in which the judgment takes effect;

(4) cases in which the people's court at the next higher level and the people's court at the next higher level make effective judgments.

In addition to the guiding cases, priority should be given to cases or cases in the past three years; if similar cases have been retrieved in the previous order, no retrieval is required.

5、 Category case retrieval can use keyword retrieval, law related case retrieval, case related retrieval and so on.

6、 The judge in charge shall identify and compare the similarity between the pending cases and the retrieval results to determine whether they belong to category cases.

7、 For the cases that should be searched in accordance with the present opinions, the presiding judge shall explain the retrieval of similar cases in the deliberation of the collegial panel, the discussion of the meeting of the professional (presiding) judges and the trial report, or make a special retrieval report on similar cases, which shall be filed with the case for future reference.

8、 The retrieval instructions or reports of similar cases shall be objective, comprehensive and accurate, including the retrieval subject, time, platform, method, results, key points of adjudication of similar cases and controversial focus of pending cases, etc., and analyze and explain whether to refer to or refer to the application of results of similar cases.

9、 The people's court shall make a decision by reference to the cases of guidance, except those that conflict with the new laws, administrative regulations and judicial interpretations or are replaced by new guiding cases.

If other types of cases are retrieved, the people's court can use it as a reference for making decisions.

10、 If the public prosecution organ, the parties to the case and their defenders and agents ad litem submit a guiding case as the reason for the prosecution (prosecution), the people's court shall respond in the reasoning of the judgment document whether to refer to and explain the reasons; if other types of cases are submitted as the reasons for the prosecution (litigation), the people's court may respond by way of explanation and so on.

11、 If there are inconsistencies in the application of law in the retrieved cases, the people's court may, taking into account such factors as the level of the court, the time of adjudication, and whether it has been discussed by the judicial committee, and so on, and in accordance with the implementation measures of the Supreme People's Court on the establishment of a mechanism for resolving differences in the application of law, the people's court can solve the problem through the mechanism.

12、 People's courts at all levels should actively promote the retrieval of similar cases, strengthen technical research and development and application training, and improve the level of intelligence and accuracy of case push.

Each higher people's court shall make full use of modern information technology to establish a trial case database, so as to lay a solid foundation for the construction of a unified and authoritative trial case database throughout the country.

13、 The people's courts at all levels shall regularly summarize and sort out the retrieval information of such cases, make them public in their own courts or in the courts under their jurisdiction in a certain form for the reference of law officers in handling cases, and report to the judicial administration department of the people's court at the next higher level for the record.

14、 The opinions will be put into trial use from July 31, 2020.

Strengthening the retrieval of similar cases, unifying the application of law and fully implementing the judicial responsibility system

——The relevant person in charge of the Supreme People's court answered reporters' questions on the guiding opinions on unifying the application of laws and strengthening the retrieval of cases (for Trial Implementation)

In order to deepen the comprehensive reform of the judicial responsibility system, unify the application of law and promote judicial justice, the Supreme People's court recently issued the guiding opinions on unifying the application of law and strengthening the retrieval of cases (for Trial Implementation) (hereinafter referred to as the opinions). Therefore, the reporter interviewed the person in charge of the Trial Management Office of the Supreme People's court and asked him to answer questions about the background and main contents of the opinions.

Q: could you tell us the background of the formulation of the opinions?

A: it is an important task for the new round of judicial system reform to deepen the comprehensive supporting reform of the judicial responsibility system and fully implement the judicial responsibility system. It is an important system guarantee to unify the application of law and promote fair justice to perfect the retrieval mechanism of similar cases and make the earlier cases become the reference or reference for judges to make judgments. In recent years, the Supreme People's court and some local courts have created a similar case retrieval mechanism, which requires the judges to search for similar cases when hearing relevant cases, so as to provide necessary reference for collegial panel, professional (presiding) judge meeting and judicial committee to study and discuss cases. The operation of this mechanism has played a certain role in helping judges to make correct judgments. However, due to the lack of specific and unified provisions on the scope of application, the subject and platform of retrieval, the scope of retrieval and the application of results, it is urgent to further standardize and improve the mechanism. For this reason, the Supreme People's court, on the basis of summing up the beneficial experience of courts at all levels, through full investigation and argumentation and extensive solicitation of opinions, has studied and formulated the opinions, positioning the retrieval of similar cases as a specific system under the written law system with Chinese characteristics, aiming at realizing the unified application of laws.

Q: the people's court's "five year plan reform outline" puts forward the requirements of "improving the working mechanism of compulsory retrieval report of class cases and new types of cases". What are the specific conditions and requirements of the opinions on the compulsory retrieval of similar cases and retrieval reports?

A: case retrieval is a way to help judges make correct judicial judgments. In the case of disputes on the application of law, the lack of clear judgment rules or the formation of unified judgment rules, it is necessary for judges to study the application of law more seriously and make more careful judgments based on the retrieval of similar cases. In order to regulate the exercise of judicial power and promote the unification of law application, the opinions stipulates that the following four cases should be searched: one is to be submitted to the professional (chief judge) judge meeting or the judicial committee for discussion; the second is that there is no clear judgment rule or there is no unified judgment rule; the third is that the president and the chief judge should search for similar cases according to the jurisdiction of judicial supervision and management; Fourth, other cases need to be searched. In order to standardize the retrieval report mechanism of similar cases, the opinions not only specifies the main contents of the retrieval instructions or reports, but also requires the undertaker judges to explain the retrieval situation in the collegial panel's deliberation, professional (presiding) judge's meeting discussion and trial report. Considering the reality of trial work, the retrieval situation of similar cases can be explained orally or specially written retrieval report can be made; however, no matter what form is adopted, it should be objective, comprehensive and accurate.

Q: how does the opinion stipulate the scope of category case retrieval?

A: the process of case retrieval is, in a sense, a process of studying the application of law. In order to ensure the orderly development of the retrieval of similar cases and promote the uniform application of laws, the opinions clearly defines the scope of category case retrieval: first, the guiding cases issued by the Supreme People's court; second, the typical cases and cases in which the judgment is effective issued by the Supreme People's court; third, reference cases and cases in which the judgment is effective issued by the higher people's Court of the province (autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government); and (4) the case in which the judgment takes effect It is a case in which the judgment of the people's court at the next higher level and this court takes effect. At the same time, combined with the practice of judicial work, the opinion stipulates that in addition to guiding cases, priority should be given to retrieving cases or cases in the past three years; for cases that have been retrieved in the previous order, no retrieval is required, so as to appropriately limit the scope of category case retrieval and improve the efficiency of class case retrieval and trial work.

Q: how does the opinion consider the case retrieval reports submitted by litigation participants to the court?

A: in recent years, with the integration and development of judicial work and information technology, case retrieval has become a reality for people. In judicial practice, some litigants, lawyers and other litigation participants will search for similar cases in advance and submit retrieval reports to the court to support their claims or defenses. In this regard, the "opinion" mainly makes two arrangements in the system design: one is to allow the public prosecution organ, the case parties and their defenders, litigation agents and so on to submit retrieval reports of similar cases, so as to provide judges with reference for adjudication. The second is to clarify the response mode of the people's court, that is, if the public prosecution organ, the parties to the case and their defenders, litigation agents, etc. submit guiding cases as the reasons for prosecution (litigation), the people's court should respond in the reasoning of the judgment documents whether to refer to and explain the reasons, enhance the acceptability of the judgment, and realize the organic unity of legal and social effects; and submit other types of case acts The people's court may respond to the case by way of explanation.

Q: what is the specific impact of cases or cases found through case retrieval on judges' judgments?

A: according to the current legal system of our country, the category of cases retrieved is not legally binding, but in fact it will be binding and referential. In particular, according to the organic law of the people's Court of the people's Republic of China and the provisions of the Supreme People's Court on the guidance of cases, the guiding cases issued by the Supreme People's court are obviously binding, that is, if the category of cases retrieved is a guiding case, the people's court shall make a decision by reference. In addition to the guiding cases, other cases or cases are not binding, but also have a certain reference value. The people's court can take the retrieved cases as the reference for judgment.

Q: what should be done if there are inconsistencies in the application of law found in the retrieval of similar cases?

A: China is a country with written law. The people's courts should judge cases according to the law, and the retrieval of similar cases is only a working mechanism to assist judges in handling cases. The retrieved cases mainly play a certain reference or reference role in judging cases. If there are inconsistencies in the application of law found in the retrieval of similar cases, the judge should make a prudent judgment according to his own understanding of the law, and the differences in the application of law can be solved through relevant mechanisms. Therefore, according to the opinions, if there are inconsistencies in the application of law in the retrieved cases, the people's court may, based on the factors such as the level of the court, the time of adjudication and whether it has been discussed by the judicial committee, and in accordance with the implementation measures of the supreme people's Court on the establishment of a mechanism for resolving differences in the application of law, the people's court can solve the problem through the mechanism for resolving differences in the application of law, so as to realize the unification of law 1. Applicable.

Reporter Liu Jing

Source: People's court news, 27 July 2020