On 5 November 2024, Zhang Jun, President of the Supreme People’s Court of China (“SPC”), delivered a report on the work of administrative trials by the courts at the 12th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress of China. The report summarizes and explains the work and achievements of administrative trials in China since 2016. As administrative cases grow yearly, Chinese courts have taken various measures to improve the efficiency and quality of trials of such cases. Key goals are to improve the business environment, protect intellectual property rights, and promote the development of green and environmentally friendly industries.
According to the report, the number of administrative trial cases in courts has increased significantly. To improve the quality of administrative trials, the SPC has not only issued judicial interpretations and guiding cases but also actively promoted relevant reforms. From 2016 to September 2024, the number of first-instance administrative cases in the courts at all levels increased by an average of 5.3% per year. A total of 2.421 million first-instance administrative cases have been heard and 1.841 million administrative non-litigation enforcement cases have been handled. The administrative actions that accounted for a relatively high proportion of the concluded first-instance cases included fines, administrative detention, social security qualification or work injury determination, confirmation of natural resource ownership, and failure to perform statutory duties.
To better guide courts at all levels in applying the Administrative Litigation Law, the SPC has formulated 8 relevant judicial interpretations, including Interpretation on Application of the Administrative Litigation Law of the People's Republic of China and Provisions on Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Administrative Agreement Cases, and issued 23 guiding cases for administrative trials. To improve the prevention and resolution rate of administrative disputes, courts at all levels have actively promoted the substantive resolution of disputes throughout the entire process of administrative trial, such as promoting the connection between administrative litigation and administrative reconsideration, administrative prosecution, pre-trial mediation of administrative disputes, and the legalization of petition work, and shifting the focus of trial work from “whether the case is closed or not” to “whether the dispute is resolved or not”.
The courts have focused on promoting high-quality administrative trials in three aspects: improving the business environment, protecting intellectual property rights, and promoting the development of green and low-carbon industries. In terms of improving the business environment, the courts have heard 316,000 first-instance administrative cases involving administrative licenses, administrative agreements, administrative promises, administrative penalties, etc. that are closely related to business entities, with an average annual increase of 23.3%. Among them, the trial of some cases involving salt wholesale licenses, photovoltaic project registration applications, and public utility franchise administrative agreements has helped resolve issues such as the administrative authorities involved in the case not granting the licenses, raising registration standards, irregular franchise agreement conclusion, and untimely performance of administrative agreements, and has promoted the removal of market access barriers and the standardization of fair competition order.
In terms of intellectual property protection, the courts have heard 138,000 first-instance administrative cases involving intellectual property rights, with an average annual increase of 20.3%. The SPC, together with the National Intellectual Property Administration, issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Coordinated Protection of Intellectual Property, promoting the establishment of mechanisms such as information sharing, business exchanges, and joint training for administrative authorization and confirmation of intellectual property rights and judicial trials. In addition, it regularly holds work consultations with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the National Anti-Monopoly Bureau, etc., focusing on the protection of seed industry intellectual property rights and prohibiting the abuse of intellectual property rights to exclude and restrict competition, and jointly enhance law enforcement and judicial protection.
In promoting the development of green and low-carbon industries, the courts have heard 118,000 first-instance administrative cases involving environmental resource protection, with an average annual increase of 14.9%.
According to the report, to promote social fairness and justice and enhance people's well-being, the courts supported administrative decisions on punishment when hearing cases involving violations such as endangering food and drug safety, damaging the ecological environment, and withholding wages for migrant workers. The courts actively participated in the special rectification of illegal occupation of farmland for building houses in rural areas, formulated judicial interpretations of cases of illegal occupation of farmland, released 126 typical cases around key areas such as farmland protection, expropriation and demolition, and heard 425,000 first-instance administrative cases involving expropriation and demolition of houses and land, with an average annual growth of 8.8%.
The report pointed out that the problems faced by administrative trials include the number of cases in the administrative management field that are closely related to the work and life of the people has not decreased; the appeal rate and retrial application rate of administrative cases are high; and the problems of “one person with multiple cases” and “one matter with multiple cases” in administrative litigation are relatively prominent. In the next step, the court will improve the fair law enforcement and judicial system, deepen the reform of administrative case jurisdiction, centralized jurisdiction, and jurisdiction in different places, and further strengthen the substantive resolution of administrative disputes.
In conclusion, the SPC summarized the key achievements, problems, and plans of China's administrative trial work in the report. This is the second time that the SPC made a special report to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress since the promulgation of the Administrative Litigation Law in 1989. This should be a preparation for the early promulgation of the Administrative Litigation Law Amendment II.