On 17 June 2021, the Supreme People's Court ("SPC") held a press conference to announce the release of the Rules of Online Litigation of People's Court ("the Rules"). The Rules are judicial interpretations formulated by the SPC and have legal effect, which will apply to more than 3,500 courts across the country and take effect on 1 August 2021.
The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology published the White Paper on China's Digital Economy Development in April 2021. It shows that as of December 2020, the size of China's digital economy was close to 40 tril lion yuan, accounting for 38.6% of the country's GDP growth. The number of online shopping users in China reached 782 million, the country's online retail sales ranked the first in the world for 8 consecutive years, and the utilization rate of online payment has reached nearly 90%.
Stepping into the 21st century, Chinese courts have started to explore the application of digital technology in judicial practice because China's digital economy is developing so rapidly that it urges the development of the rule of law in the cyberspace. From online case filing, electronic case files, online payment and video hearings, to establishing the first internet court in the world and using blockchain to store evidence, Chinese courts have been continuing to broaden the scope of applications of online litigation.
The sudden appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic affected how to conduct litigations worldwide, including China. Under the promotion and guidance of the SPC, Chinese courts moved online right after the outbreak. Soon, online litigation has become the main approach for the public to get access to the judicial system. From 1 January 2020 to 31 May 2021, 12.19 million cases were filed online, accounting for 28.3% of the total number of the cases filed; 1.28 million online hearings were conducted, taking an average of 42.34 minutes for each hearing; as for court-referred mediation, 6.51 million cases were mediated online and 6.14 million cases were successfully mediated in the pre-trial state.
To further regulate online litigation, the SPC enacted the Rules of Online Litigation of People's Court based on the practice of Hangzhou Internet Court, Beijing Internet Court and Guangzhou Internet Court, and the suggestions of domestic judges, scholars, lawyers and Internet enterprises.
The Rules have 39 articles in total, covering the legal validity, basic principles, applicable scope and applicable conditions of online litigation. They give guidance on how to conduct particular litigation activities online, such as online case filing, online court-referred mediation, online exchange of evidence, online hearings, online judgment announcement and online enforcement.
（From english.court.gov.cn）