Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People’s Court, made a report on administrative procedure work since 2010 to the 17th Session of the 12th National People’s Congress Standing Committee on Nov 2. It marks the first time the top legislature has deliberated on “people suing the government” since the Administrative Procedure Law was enacted in 1990.

Zhou first summarized the achievements made in terms of administrative procedure and trial work. From 2010 to September 2015, courts at all levels heard 2.04 million administration-related cases. Of those, 59,000 nationwide were decided in favor of the petitioners and against the administrative departments. The courts offered a total of 22,000 judicial suggestions to the administrative departments.

The SPC and courts nationwide also pushed ahead with jurisdiction reform to prevent intervention from government departments.

However, Zhou pointed out that there still remains much room for improvement, and pressure from civil petitions remains heavy. Meanwhile, some officials have failed to adopt an appropriate approach towards administrative procedure work.

To tackle these problems, he suggested that due adjustments should be made concerning the jurisdiction to re-hear cases on appeal, so that more cases would be resolved at the grassroots level.

From 2010-14, courts at all levels heard 1.66 million administration-related cases, with 1.635 million concluded, a rise of 16.3 percent and 15.2 percent respectively over five years ago.

Zhou said courts at all levels had actively responded to the concerns of the general public by enhancing the protection of litigants’ property, personal rights, and information, and by protecting the environment.

However, problems, some very prominent, still remain.

First, the ideology of administrative procedures needs to be improved. Some courts were disdainful of the protection of the personal rights of the litigants, while others proceeded inappropriately, too strongly “ruling by law”.

Second, the number of judges in this area needs to be enlarged. Statistics show that the country had a total of 8,878 judges who conduct administrative procedure trials, with the average number of judges for each higher, intermediate and local court standing at merely 10.8, 4.4 and 2.3 respectively.

Zhou called for the top legislature to further investigate and supervise the area, and to encourage the local people’s congress to hear reports on administrative procedure cases on a regular basis.