Judicial Transparency of Chinese Courts
IV. Disclosure of Enforcement Information
Enforcement disclosure is an important constituent of the judicial transparency of a people’s court, and an important measure to strive for the understanding of and support to the enforcement work by each party. People’s courts at all levels are promoting the enforcement disclosure, strengthening the construction of enforcement information disclosure platform, actively connecting with the social credit system, proactively accepting social supervision and focusing on solving the issues causing difficulties in enforcement.
The Supreme People’s Court has integrated the disclosed information of all courts in China in four aspects to develop and construct a uniform China Enforcement Information Disclosure Website, namely, the disclosure and inquiry of information on list of dishonest persons subject to enforcement, inquiry of information on persons subject to enforcement, information disclosure on procedures of enforcement cases and judgment enforcement disclosure, and has launched the Website on November 1, 2014. The case parties may inquire through the Enforcement Information Disclosure Website about the basic information of unclosed enforcement cases, information of list of dishonest persons subject to enforcement and judgment enforcement information, and may log on the Website to inquire about the procedure information of the case by their names, ID card numbers and enforcement case numbers, including the information on case registration for enforcement, enforcement personnel, change in enforcement procedure, enforcement measures, disposal of properties subject to enforcement, enforcement award, allocation of amounts from enforcement, probation of enforcement, suspension of enforcement and close of enforcement, and may follow up the progress of the enforcement case. The general public may conveniently inquire through the Enforcement Information Disclosure Website about the standards for registration of enforcement cases, launch procedures, enforcement charging standards and basis, and moratorium, reduction or exemption of enforcement fee, enforcement risk reminder, reward announcement and auction announcement, etc. By the end of 2014, the Enforcement Information Disclosure Website has published 21,490,000 unclosed cases and 27,890,000 pieces of information on persons subject to enforcement on a cumulative basis, and handled 19,300,000 inquiries of information on enforcement case.
The Supreme People’s Court has promoted the establishment of an enforcement information sharing mechanism to strengthen the construction of the online enforcement investigation and control mechanism with public security organs, land and resources bureaus, housing and urban-rural development departments, finance departments, industrial and commercial administrations and other assistance enforcement units, in order to lower investigation and control costs and enhance the enforcement work efficiency. The information sharing and exchange among credit platforms established by the railway departments, civil aviation bureaus, industrial and commercial administrations, banking and financial institutions and relevant departments is strengthening. And the information of list of dishonest persons subject to enforcement will be circulated to the relevant departments to carry out joint credit punishment, such as restricting the persons subject to enforcement to purchase cushioned berth tickets or flight tickets, or apply for loans and credit cards, and prohibiting such persons to hold office as legal representatives or senior officers of the enterprise, so as to procure the persons subject to enforcement to actively perform their enforcement obligations. China Railway Corporation and TravelSky Technology Limited have respectively and officially launched the measures to restrict dishonest persons subject to enforcement to purchase cushioned berth ticket and flight ticket on June 18, 2014 and July 1, 2014, and by the end of 2014, 1,055,414 persons have been restricted from purchasing flight ticket and 56,038 persons have been restricted from purchasing cushioned berth tickets, under such measures and on a cumulative basis. People’s courts at all levels are also providing convenience for the general public to inquire about the information of persons subject to enforcement of unclosed enforcement cases, information of list of dishonest persons subject to enforcement, and information on list of persons subject to limitation on departures, limitation on tender and bidding and limitation on high consumption, and are making efforts to give full play of role of enforcement information disclosure platform and proactively promote the construction of the social credit system. By the end of 2014, there are 894,906 dishonest persons subject to enforcement punished, consisted of 776, 288 natural persons and 118,618 legal persons and other organizations.
On December 24, 2014, the Supreme People’s Court Enforcement Command System launched. The Supreme People’s Court Enforcement Command System has realized the longitudinal mutual connection of the enforcement networks of the four-tier courts in China and the horizontal mutual connection with the all central national authorities, departments and ministries and the headquarters of commercial banks. And enforcement personnel of all courts in China can inquire information on identity and property of the debtors within the territory of China through network and control such property. At present, the Supreme People’s Court has realized the longitudinal mutual connection with 27 higher people’s courts in China, and signed cooperation memorandums with the ID Card Inquiry Center of the Ministry of Public Security, the National Administration for Code Allocation to Organizations, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission and another 20 banking and financial institutions, and has built up a special network for joint investigation and control of the properties of persons subject to enforcement and for punishment of dishonest activities.
All local people’s courts have made many proactive explorations in terms of strengthening the enforcement disclosure, and provided convenience for case parties and their agents ad litem to inquire about information on enforcement case by many approaches, and examined the construction of a new enforcement disclosure mechanism integrating enforcement handing, enforcement service and enforcement supervision. At present, courts in Beijing have realized the automatic collection and dynamic publishing of enforcement information, and the real time release of number of cases under enforcement by courts at all levels in Beijing, and are able to provide real time public data for the social credit system. All enforcement command centers in Jiangsu province will make public the list of persons subject to enforcement and the hotline for reporting clues about the properties of such persons, and have built up an enforcement information interactive platform online to realize timely feedback on the reported property clues concerning the persons subject to enforcement. Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court has taken the online litigation service platform for courts in Shenzhen (http://ssfw.szcourt.gov.cn ) as the subject and taken advantage of the hawk-eye investigation and control network and the intensive aurora system, to build up a uniform enforcement information disclosure platform to include information of the persons subject to enforcement into the Shenzhen Credit Website (http://www.szcredit.com.cn) to enhance the enforcement efficiency. Shaanxi Xi’an Intermediate People’s Court has explored the introduction of simultaneous video broadcasting online to the significant enforcement activities to expand the scope of enforcement disclosure, and enhance the transparency of enforcement work.
Many local people’s courts have also explored online judicial auction to guarantee the disclosure and transparency of judicial auction. Courts in Zhejiang have allied with Taobao.com to establish an online judicial auction platform since June 2012, through which the courts will legally and independently dispose properties involved in the litigation by means of electronic bidding, and all auction steps and procedures are carried out on internet, and no commission or other charges will be collected. This not only realizes the entire disclosure of judicial auction, but also maximizes the realization value of the auctioned assets and squeezes the space of black box operation. By the end of 2014, courts in Zhejiang have made a turnover exceeding RMB 27,000,000,000 from the online judicial auction, with an average premium of 42.11%, and saved over RMB 590,000,000 commissions for the case parties. Courts in Chongqing have launched the litigation assets website on July 1, 2011. From April 2009 to October 31, 2014, courts in Chongqing have carried out 2,626 judicial auctions with 2,169 auctions successfully completed. The 82.6% total auction completion rate and 9.73% average premium rate for completed auctions have formed a strong contrast with the less than 20% auction completion rate and 30% average value shrinking, achieved before the reform. At present, a national litigation assets website for all people’s courts (http://www.rmfysszc.gov.cn/) has been built up and put into operation.