IV Smart Management of Trial and Enforcement Services
General Secretary Xi Jinping noted that artificial intelligence is an important driving force of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial reform，and development of a new generation of artificial intelligence is a strategy important for China to seize the reform opportunities.[4] In 2019，driven by the artificial intelligence，courts at all levels accelerated the progress of “smart trial，smart enforcement，smart service，and smart management”. They worked hard to make decision-making more scientific，case-handling more efficient，service more thoughtful and management more precise，and strived to meet the public’s growing multifaceted judicial needs.
（I）Progress in Smart Trial
The people’s courts are the adjudicatory organs of the state. With yearly advancement of informatization and deep integration of modern science and technology with trial，the people’s courts have changed the work mode for core businesses significantly.
1. Maturing online litigation mode
The smartness of trial is reflected in comprehensive exploration of online litigation modes. Online court trial has had a disruptive impact on the judicial work，reshaping litigation concepts，litigation modes and judicial processes，and even continuously breaking through the current institutional framework and promoting institutional innovation in practice. In this revolutionary process，both the Internet courts and the online courtroom function of mobile micro-courts have made the online litigation mode itself more sound. The Guangzhou Internet Court developed “E-legal pavilions”，in which 5G + 4K technology was used to provide clear and stable images during the whole trial process. As a result，an effective solution has been provided to solve the problem of the parties and the judge being in different places，and with the assistance of relevant technologies the efficiency has also been greatly increased in terms of evidence submission，direct or cross-examination and debate. Asynchronous trial （or interactive trial），which has solved the problem of region differences as well as the problem of time differences，is truly a “cross time and space” online solution.
2. Fixing evidence with blockchain technology
Comrade Xi Jinping，when presiding over the 18th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on October 24，2019，stressed，“China has a good foundation in the field of blockchain. We should accelerate the innovative development of the blockchain technology and industry，and promote integration of blockchain and economic and social development.” Evidence is critically important for trial. According to procedure laws，electronic data may be used to prove a case as evidence，which is an inevitable choice for trial in the information age as well. However，electronic data is transient and difficult to preserve，and they are also highly susceptible to human tampering. The blockchain technology has been specifically useful in solving the problems of electronic data when used as judicial evidence，and is now being used to varying degrees in the three Internet Courts，with promising performance. The Hangzhou Internet Court made use of judicial blockchain in verifying data generation through the dimensions of time，place and person，as well as before，during and after the event. In this way，the whole process may be recorded as electrmic data，with all links being credible and all nodes witnessed. The Tianping Blockchain used by the Beijing Internet Court also represented a judicial application of the blockchain technology. Through the use of the Blockchain，electronic evidence may be preserved，collected，and further verified. During the litigation process，evidence may be verified immediately and efficiently. The Guangzhou Internet Court created the Smart Credit Ecosystem with the “Network-Law Chain”，bringing together the cross-domain data providers of “telecommunications operators + financial institutions + Internet enterprises”. An open and neutral database was set up with “one chain and two platforms”，namely judicial blockchain，credible electronic evidence platform and judicial credit co-governance platform.
3. Instantaneous creation of electronic case files and in-depth applications
The instantaneous generation and in-depth application of electronic files is fundamental in the construction of smart courts. In 2019，courts at all levels continued to promote synchronous generation and in-depth application of electronic files，and circulated electronic files in the whole process to support the case handling，thus effectively improving quality and efficiency of trial and enhancing the smartness of trial in all aspects. The people’s courts promoted in-depth application of electronic files after summing up their synchronous generation and in-depth applications. Smart applications were improved by focusing on case information autocompleting，automatic filing，intelligent access to files and intelligent generation of documents，with the view of forming a filing method that is mainly based on electronic files and supplemented by paper files.
By the end of December 2019，93% of the people’s courts had built the system of synchronous generation of electronic files，and had access to such core technical functions as cataloging electronic files，reading case files online，assisting in generation of legal documents，and filing. The electronic case files accounted for 72% of all case files. Seven regions，including Beijing，Yunnan and Guangdong，have piloted the filing method of “electronic files playing the main role and paper files the support role”，setting an example for exploring new filing methods.
4. Constantly improving smart support for trial
In assisting in the core work of trial，the information technology has played a role that should not be underestimated. It has largely improved efficiency of judges in handling cases，and also helped safeguard legitimate rights and interests of the parties.
Key technologies with intelligence as their core，such as automatic blocking of case filing risks，automatic labeling and early warning of sensitive cases，speech recognition in court hearings，intelligent error correction of documents and compulsory retrieval of similar cases，have been used effectively in such applications as autocompleting of all case information，intelligent document generation，and factor-oriented smart trial，successfully raising smartness of trial and ensuring trial quality，efficiency and effectiveness. At the same time，with the strong support of the party committees and governments at all levels，the people’s courts have strengthened cooperation with public security organs，the people’s procuratorates，and the judicial administration departments to build a speedy，convenient，safe and reliable platform for handling cases with big data，seeking co-construction，sharing，interconnection，openness and compatibility of information infrastructures and data resources.
Supported by the “smart trial” system，cases may be handled online with electronic files，well-structured files may be generated supported by data，and various formatted documents may be generated instantly with one key. With smart assistance，judges may prepare written judgments，through retrieving and reusing indictments，pleadings and trial transcripts. In 2019，the smart trial system was used by the courts in Hebei，Jilin，Guangdong，and Zhejiang provinces. Hebei courts generated a total of more than 24 million documents，including 1.95 million judgments produced with smart assistance. The practice of Hebei courts showed that the system was able to reduce the routine work of judges by more than 30%.
The similar case pushing system using artificial intelligence and big-data analysis，provided references for judges through the “text search” method，extracting case information，and automatically pushing similar cases or cases with similar dispute focus. In general the accuracy rate has reached 70%. For civil and criminal cases with the top ten causes of action，the accuracy rate has exceeded 95%.
More than 38，000 technology-enabled courtrooms were built nationwide in 2019. The Supreme People’s Court organized the research and development of trial speech recognition system. The speech recognition technology was used in trial recording to automatically separate the objects of the trial speech and the speech contents，and automatically convert speech into text. With the help of artificial intelligence and batch revision，clerks only needed to make a small number of manual revisions to record trials completely，reducing the trial time by an average of 20-30%，and reaching 100% in completeness of trial transcripts.
（II）Progress in Smart Enforcement
Since 2016，under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core，and under the direct leadership of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission，the people’s courts have won the battle of “basically solving the implementation difficulties” as scheduled，and made significant achievements in enforcement，brought about historic changes and development by leaps and bounds. The Outline for the Enforcement Work of the People’s Courts （2019—2023） has been issued to comprehensively plan and further promote the application of modern information technology in the field of enforcement. Courts at all levels should continue to promote the integration of modern science and technology with enforcement，and use information technology and intelligence as the lever to upgrade the enforcement mode. Courts at all levels，in advancing deep integration，should also promote smart enforcement，and take advantage of information technology to reduce the burden and increase the efficiency of enforcement，as well as provide it with adequate support.
The Supreme People’s Court has developed and launched a blockchain evidence preservation system and a dynamic management platform for cases with terminated enforcement procedures，effectively solving the thorny problems facing enforcement and standardizing enforcement behavior. The platform for enforcement and cases handling and the joint credit disciplinary system have opened up more data-sharing channels with the platform for trial and cases handling and relevant systems on the extranets，thus expanding the intensity and scope of data sharing. The online property inquiry and control platform has improved the functions of automatic inquiry，batch control，smart screening，and in-depth exploration of enforcees’ properties. The online judicial sale platform has made further progress in transparency，standardization and informatization，and effectively improved the efficiency of property disposal and lifted the burden on the parties. Shanghai Songjiang Court has piloted the management system for the enforcement case process，which made use of information extraction，GIS visualized command management system，and blockchain technology. The system covers the following functions as automatic check and autocompleting of new case information，automatic reminding of enforcement nodes，automatic generation of enforcement documents，and automatic freezing of properties or accounts when detecting violations. In the process，the framework of smart enforcement has been improved，and the smartness of enforcement has been transformed and upgraded. The enforcement command centers of Hunan courts at all levels have launched online office and online consultation through the enforcement office system. The centers may instantly command，coordinate，and supervise enforcement through the GIS visualized command management system. The centers may also collect evidence on site，supervise the whole process，and provide emergency rescue with the help of the mobile enforcement App system，as well as automatically connect enforcement case information and display the data in a real-time manner through the intranet support system. In addition，they have also made accessible enforcement case information and key nodes and processes through the transparent enforcement system.
In order to solve the difficulty of finding people and things，the Supreme People’s Court has actively promoted establishment of the online inquiry and control system covering all courts nationwide and major property forms，forming an online enforcement inquiry and control system led by the Supreme People’s Court with the “General to General” system and supplemented by local courts with the “Point to Point” system. The Supreme People’s Court has been networked with more than 10 entities，including the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Public Security and more than 3，900 banks，and was able to inquire about 25 items of information in 16 categories，such as bank deposits，so as to access （in accordance with law） records of all forms of property via one network. As of November 30，2019，the people’s courts across the country have used the online inquiry and control system to inquire more than 74.42 million cases，freezing 783.2 billion yuan，search 82.59 million vehicles，530.7 billion shares of securities，3.5 million fishing boats and ships，and 40.2 billion yuan of Internet bank deposits，as well as 73.81 million pieces of information about housing，land and other real estate.
In order to crack the problem of circumventing enforcement，the Supreme People’s Court has established the system of disclosing the lists of dishonest judgment debtors，and cooperated with 60 and more entities，including the National Development and Reform Commission. Joint disciplinary measures against dishonest judgment debtors have been implemented，such as restricting purchase of plane tickets，soft sleeper tickets or G-series high-speed train tickets and restricting assumption of legal representatives of enterprises. These compulsory measures may make “deadbeats” “dishonest once，restricted everywhere”. By the end of 2019，people’s courts across the nation had disclosed 5.71 million pieces of information about dishonest judgment debtors，restricting purchase of airplane tickets for more than 37.5 million times and purchase of soft sleeper tickets for more than 6.36 million times，proving effective in cracking the problem.
In order to solve the problem of difficult liquidation of properties，the Supreme People’s Court has issued a judicial interpretation of online judicial sales，forming a system in which online sales are the principle and live auctions are the exception. Five websites，such as Taobao and Jingdong，are included in the list of judicial online auctions and are accessible across the nation. In March 2017，the Supreme People’s Court launched a national management platform for online judicial sales. As of the end of 2019，the people’s courts across the nation carried out online auctions for more than 1.75 million times，with turnover of more than 101.47 billion yuan and a premium rate of 95%，saving more than 31.4 billion yuan in commissions for the parties concerned. Moreover，no complaints were filed in this high-risk field for violations of laws and regulations.
（III）Progress in Smart Services
The people’s courts have adhered to a people-centered approach to information technology development，taking meeting the needs and safeguarding the interests of the people as the starting point and goal of all work. Litigation service is the key to administration of justice for the people，and courts at all levels have regarded the development of information-based technology as new momentum to drive development of litigation service. On August 1，2019，the Supreme People’s Court issued the Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on the Construction of a One-Stop Multiple Dispute Resolution Mechanism and a One-Stop Litigation Service Center，proposing to comprehensively construct a modern litigation service system that is intensive and efficient，alternative in dispute resolution，convenient to the people，intelligent and precise，open and interactive，and integrated and shared，so as to provide one-stop multiple dispute resolution and one-stop litigation service，and make efforts to allow the public feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.
In 2019，the Litigation Service Center of the People’s Courts was in the critical stage of comprehensive transformation and upgrading. The construction of litigation service halls，litigation service networks，mobile litigation service platforms，and 12368 hotlines were being promoted in coordination. The online and offline functions of litigation services were complementary and integrated，while all-round services were promoted to varying degrees in such areas as alternative dispute resolution，registration and case filing，distribution of cases for mediation，arbitration and adjudication，trial and enforcement assistance，and litigation-related petitions. Meanwhile，the barriers to cross-regional remote handling and cross-level joint handling of litigation matters were constantly overcome，with litigation service centers moving towards the goal of enabling access via “one platform，one website，and one number”.
The people’s courts，in accordance with the requirement of giving priority to the non-litigation dispute resolution mechanism，innovated and developed the Fengqiao experience in promoting social harmony in the new era，and comprehensively promoted the development of alternative dispute resolution mechanism. The construction and application of the mediation platform of the people’s courts was continuously pushed forward，and a one-stop platform was built for alternative dispute resolution. Alternative dispute resolution platforms of a number of courts across the country were launched and functioned in 2019. These platforms were committed to building a scientific，precise and efficient mechanism for case flowing，mediation and adjudication linking，and procedural conversion，forming a working pattern in which most simple cases are mediated and tried at the litigation service center in a fast-track manner and a few complex cases are precisely adjudicated.
The successful experience of online litigation services，represented by Internet courts and mobile micro-courts，has promoted the nationwide practice of providing “the whole chain” and “one-stop” mobile electronic litigation services for judges to handle cases and for the parties concerned to take legal actions. Micro Courts have been piloted nationwide，and have made accessible in the courts of more than 10 provinces. In Zhejiang province alone，over the past year when the mobile micro courts were accessible，the three levels of Zhejiang courts have handled more than 740，000 cases online，with a total of more than 110 million hits，an average of more than 500，000 hits per day，and a per capita daily visit of 6 minutes. 26 high courts and all courts under their jurisdiction have started to use the unified online document service platform for courts nationwide. The new path of replacing SMS notifications with WeChat notifications was being explored；the technical verification of the WeChat unified identity authentication platform has been completed，providing a more powerful technical guarantee for online litigations. The general deployment requirements for cross-regional case docketing across the country were met in 2019. The courts in the Yangtze River Delta filed 100 per cent of cross-regional cases within their jurisdictions and across provincial-level administrative regions.
The Beijing Municipal High People’s Court launched 24-hour online reservation for case filing and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cross-regional case filing，allowing the public the “convenience at their fingertips” and meeting the goal of justice for the people through Internet access.
The Chongqing High People’s Court has integrated the core platform functions of “easy to prosecute”，“easy to solve”，“easy to try” and “easy to reach”，and launched Chongqing “Easy Court” App，an intelligent and convenient judicial litigation service mobile terminal，which may make accessible the functions of filing a case，paying fees，holding court hearings，exchanging evidence and cross-examination，delivery service and online mediation. The judicial activities were effectively extended to interconnected mobile terminals，truly making “instant connection” at a touch of a finger.
The Litigation Service Center of Kunshan People’s Court in Jiangsu Province made use of the current achievements of information technology to provide all-round litigation services for the parties. It has launched a litigation risk assessment system to guide the parties to rationally protect their rights，set up a self-service filing device to improve the efficiency of the parties，and introduced a litigation guide robot “Xiaofa” to provide intelligent legal services. It has also launched a “Pay with Code” service to support remote payment of case fees，and independently developed an intelligent system for separation of complicated cases and simple ones to improve handling efficiency of simple cases and effectively reduce the litigation burden of the parties.
The information platform of the litigation service guidance center of the Supreme People’s Court has carried out the intensive management of the “four-in-one” litigation services，and comprehensively managed the effectiveness of litigation services provided by the litigation service halls of the four levels of courts，the litigation service networks，the Mobile Micro Courts，and the 12368 litigation service hotline. It has aggregated the big data and carried out the comprehensive management of litigation service platforms，as well as promoted all-round interconnection and whole-process interaction of diversified dispute resolutions.
（IV）Progress in Smart Management
Information technology has provided a new solution for administration of the people’s courts，and replaced the inefficient and blind management mode with interference of human factors in the past with an effective interaction between informatization，application and management. The trial administration platform of the people’s courts has strengthened case information statistics，and management and control of trial process nodes，and carried out big data analysis of case status and trial trends，thus effectively enhancing precision trial management. The trial supervision has also been strengthened with informatization. The whole process of each case and each link has been supervised，and such media as online reporting and communication platforms have further expanded public supervision channels. Thanks to informatization，judicial administration has been moving towards precision management in three dimensions：cases，persons and matters”. The visualized operation and maintenance management platforms have gathered，managed and displayed all kinds of system data，monitored in every respect the operation and application of infrastructures，business applications，data management，information security，and operation and maintenance security. As a result，problems are able to be accurately identified and solved.
In order to promote modernization of the trial system and trial capacity，and further promote implementation of judicial accountability and supervision of exertion of judicial power，Heilongjiang High People’s Court took the lead in piloting a disciplinary mechanism against misbehaving judges，carried out research and development in establishing a judge supervision platform，and introduced a pressure transmission and healthy competition mechanism. The supervision platform on judges across the Heilongjiang province automatically collected，analyzed in real time，ranked dynamically and released to the public the aspects of case handling performance，actual operation of trials，ratio of （appeals） petitions，public complaints，and compliance with discipline and ethical conduct. The judges who have misbehaved were automatically recorded in the “warning list”，with warning information pushed to the judges concerned and the relevant leaders. Since the results obtained this way would link up with appraisal and promotion，the judges were motivated to standardize judicial behavior，and improve judicial conduct，and enhance the quality and efficiency of case handling，thus ensuring the execution of judicial power according to law，combination of decentralization and effective control，and adequate supervision.
The Guangzhou Maritime Court has developed its own “Appellate Case Management System” to realize the informatization of appellate case management. The Management System has set six time points to monitor the whole process from the receipt of a written appeal to the return of the written appeal for filing，and focused on two time periods：“from the receipt of a written appeal by the handling personnel to the transfer of the written appeal to the trial management team” and “from the return of the appeal files to the handling personnel to the transfer of the files to the file office”. The early warning function of the System has helped solve the problem that a certain number of files cannot be transferred to the trial management team or the file room in time due to staff adjustment，thus effectively ensuring the timely transfer of appeal files. The Appellate Case Management System has not only facilitated the work of the trial management team，but also provided assistance to the handling personnel in grasping the appeal process，and effectively enhanced the efficiency of clerks and reduced the work burden as well.