III. Disclosure of Judgments, Verdicts and Reconciliation Statements

Judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements are the final products of the trial work of a people’s court, and are important carriers that carry all litigation activities, settle disputes and reflect judicial competence. The establishment of the system of online disclosure and uniform inquiry of judgments to enable the public to rapidly and conveniently consult judgments through internet, is an important initiative of the Supreme People’s Court to deepen judicial transparency, safeguard justice and demonstrate judicial civilization.

In July 1, 2013, the Supreme People’s Court launched the Website of Judicial Opinions of China (http://www.court.gov.cn/zgcpwsw/) to establish a national uniform platform for disclosure of judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements. From January 1, 2014, the effective judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements rendered by people’s courts at all levels have been published on that Website subsequently. By the end of, higher, intermediate and basic people’s courts in 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under central government in China have realized the uploading of judgments, verdicts and reconciliations to the Website of Judicial Opinions of China, and the number of published judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements has reached 5,685,491, of which, the Supreme People’s Court has published 7,582 judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements in total.

In order to safeguard the timely, standardized and orderly online disclosure of judgments and judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements, the Supreme People’s Court has formulated the Provisions on Publishing Judgments and Judicial Opinions on Internet by People’s Courts to demand that the effective judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements rendered by people’s courts at all levels, except for those involving State secret, personal privacy, juvenile delinquency or closing in mediation, shall be uploaded to the Website of Judicial Opinions of China uniformly within seven days upon effectiveness, and to stipulate the specific handling methods thereof. People’s courts at all levels shall, when uploading judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements on the Internet, pay attention to control the relationship of safeguarding the right to information of the general public and protecting the privacy of citizens and personal information safety, and carry out any necessary technical handling of the personal information that is inappropriate to make public based on the types of cases. Courts in Zhejiang have elaborated the scope of uploading of judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements and the working procedure thereof to promote a strict online examination and approval mechanism for judicial documents not uploading to the internet, and have developed the computer-aided management system for judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements, and integrated the preparation, automatic formatting, proofreading and error correction, treatment of nondisclosure of name and online publishing of judicial documents, to realize the integrated management from preparation to online publishing of judicial documents. Courts in Chongqing have researched and developed a set of software for automatic generation and error correction of judgments and judicial opinions, which integrates nearly a thousand templates of judgments, verdicts and reconciliation statements, and have set up special judgments proofreading and verification offices, in order to enhance the quality of the disclosure of judgments and judicial opinions.