Over the past decade, the courts in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei have actively explored the collaborative and innovative practice of regional rule of law, achieved full coverage of cross-regional case filing, strengthened the joint enforcement of the three regions, and coordinated the cultivation of talents to ensure the unified and correct implementation of the law, and continuously improved the level of the "same-city effect" of judicial trials
Entrustment of enforcement matters, assistance in remote execution, joint investigation and control of the person subject to enforcement, and disposal of property in other places...... In recent years, the enforcement linkage and cooperation mechanism of the courts in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei has been continuously upgraded to protect the legitimate rights and interests of applicants to the greatest extent and effectively defend judicial authority
The courts in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have promoted the uniform and correct implementation of laws in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region through methods such as normalizing the organization and carrying out exchanges and training of cadres on temporary posts, education and training, exchanges and cooperation
Officers from the Executive Bureau of the People's Court of Miyun District, Beijing communicate with the staff of the Real Estate Registration Center of Yongqing County, Hebei Province about the transfer of ownership (photo taken on December 26, 2023) Photo by Gan Panting
On the shore of the Luan River, at the foot of Yanshan Mountain, more than 200 kilometers away from Beijing, is located in the Shougang Qian'an Mining Area. In 2023, the Beijing Shijingshan Court and the Hebei Qian'an Court will cooperate and set up the Beijing-Hebei Judicial Cooperation Office in the Yangdianzi Court of the Qian'an Court, so as to realize the local discovery, mediation and resolution of conflicts and disputes through in-depth judicial cooperation.
The coordinated development strategy of judicial services in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei should be coordinated and implemented. Over the past decade, the courts in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei have actively explored the collaborative and innovative practice of regional rule of law, achieved full coverage of cross-regional case filing, strengthened the joint enforcement of the three regions, and coordinated the cultivation of talents to ensure the unified and correct implementation of the law, and continuously improved the level of the "same-city effect" of judicial trials.
Full coverage of cross-domain filing
In March 2024, the north will be warm and cold. Zeng Jing, a judge of the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing, boarded a train from Beijing's Qinghe Station to Zhangjiakou Station early in the morning. The purpose of her visit was to pay a return visit to the defendant company in an inter-company contract dispute case.
The defendant, a Hebei enterprise, was sued by a Tianjin enterprise to the Haidian Court, which had agreed jurisdiction between the two parties, on the grounds that it did not deliver the goods, and demanded that it pay an advance payment for environmental protection equipment and compensate for liquidated damages of more than 1 million yuan. After the trial, Zeng actually found that the plaintiff also had a breach of contract of more than 1 million yuan in arrears with the defendant, and accordingly rejected the plaintiff's claim in accordance with the law.
After the judgment came into effect, Zeng actually kept in mind the defendant company that was almost "breached", and worried that its normal operation would be affected. The purpose of this return visit is to understand the specific legal needs of the enterprise and provide support for its healthy development.
"The companies involved in the case are located in Hebei and Tianjin, but this case is filed in Beijing and under the jurisdiction of the Beijing court, so we cannot live up to the trust." Zeng actually said.
In 2019, when online case filing and online court trials were not yet popular, the courts in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei took the lead in achieving full coverage of cross-regional case filing services across the country, making it as convenient for parties in the three regions to participate in litigation to the greatest extent.
On the basis of cross-domain filing, the three places have successively launched a number of sharing mechanisms and service platforms. The information of judicial appraisal institutions in the 2023 "Alternative List of Professional Institutions Entrusted by Beijing Courts" will be shared and used by the Tianjin and Hebei courts, effectively realizing mutual recognition of appraisal opinions between regions; Relying on the "People's Court Lawyer Service Platform" established by the Supreme People's Court, lawyers in the three places can apply for postponement of court hearings, investigate and collect evidence, online refunds, online file reading and other litigation service matters across provinces, which greatly facilitates the parties' participation in litigation in other places.
In recent years, the courts in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei have continued to deepen the construction of normalized mechanisms for cooperation. By the end of 2023, a total of 44 cooperation agreements had been signed between the third-level courts of Beijing and the Tianjin-Hebei courts, covering various fields such as enforcement, bankruptcy, environmental resources, finance, and intellectual property.
Linkage execution and strong collaboration
On December 26, 2023, in a dispute over a housing lease contract, the Beijing Miyun District People's Court received clues about the property available for enforcement by the person subject to enforcement, showing that the property is currently located in Yongqing County, Langfang City, Hebei Province. In the face of off-site enforcement matters, the presiding judge immediately initiated the enforcement joint coordination mechanism, and sent a letter of assistance in enforcement to the Yongqing County People's Court through the off-site enforcement module of the comprehensive management platform of the people's court's enforcement command center.
In order to ensure the smooth development of the evacuation of real estate in other places, the courts of the two places have simultaneously promoted the coordination of reporting to the provincial/municipal high courts, the formulation of vacate plans, the deployment of police forces, and on-site notarization. During the enforcement process, the courts of the two places acted quickly, coordinated and efficient, and the evacuation of the property in another place was successfully completed in only half a day.
For a long time, off-site enforcement has been one of the pain points and difficulties that plague the enforcement work of grassroots courts. Entrustment of enforcement matters, assistance in remote execution, joint investigation and control of the person subject to enforcement, and disposal of property in other places...... In recent years, the enforcement linkage and cooperation mechanism of the courts in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei has been continuously upgraded to protect the legitimate rights and interests of applicants to the greatest extent and effectively defend judicial authority.
Company A, which was registered in Pinggu District, Beijing, applied to the People's Court of Pinggu District, Beijing to enforce Company B due to a dispute over the right of recovery. Since the land use rights, factory buildings and above-ground appurtenances in the name of Company B were seized by the Qingyuan County People's Court of Baoding City, Hebei Province in a separate case, the Pinggu Court seized the machinery and equipment and production facilities in the company's factory in this case.
Subsequently, the property in the name of Company B seized by the Qingyuan Court was successfully auctioned, but the buyer was unable to enter the market for a long time due to the obstruction of the disposal of large machinery and equipment. Under the convening organization of the courts of Pinggu and Qingyuan, the foreign representatives of the creditor, the buyer and the person subject to enforcement held a meeting on the disposal of property vacancy, and finally reached a consensus on ensuring that the buyer's entry into the site and the disposal of movable property were carried out simultaneously, urging the foreign representative of Company B, the person subject to enforcement, to issue a letter to express written opinions, and the distribution of the funds for the enforcement case, and the enforcement process was smoothly promoted.
Xu Yougang, director of the Pinggu Court Enforcement Bureau, introduced that in this joint enforcement, the Beijing-Hebei Court held several joint meetings of trial law enforcement officers and consultation meetings of representatives of all parties, jointly organized and carried out five large-scale enforcement activities, successfully disposed of the property in the name of the company subject to enforcement, and recovered about 110 million yuan of economic losses for the applicant for enforcement.
According to statistics, since 2017, Beijing courts have entrusted the Tianjin and Hebei courts to enforce 83,000 matters, handled 45,000 Tianjin and Hebei court matters, and assisted the Tianjin and Hebei courts in on-site enforcement 165 times, further exerting the "same city effect" of remote enforcement.
Actively perform duties and promote governance
The courts in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei have jumped out of the thinking of "one matter, one discussion" and "one matter, one coordination", focusing on the goals of unified application of law, sharing of judicial resources, general handling of litigation service matters, and joint construction of judicial performance capacity, giving full play to the role of active justice in promoting social governance and enhancing the momentum of coordinated development.
Relieving Beijing's non-capital functions is the "bull's nose" to promote the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. In order to realize judicial assistance to public decision-making, Beijing courts have explored the establishment of a "four advances" working mechanism, that is, to put forward legal argumentation opinions in advance, to carry out special training on administration according to law for law enforcement personnel in advance, to publicize relevant typical cases to the masses in advance, and to go deep into the masses to resolve conflicts in advance.
In recent years, Beijing courts have steadily handled a number of key work cases involving the special action of "easing and promoting", the construction of urban sub-centers, the preparation of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, the construction of Daxing International Airport, and the application of the central axis for World Heritage Sites, strengthening the linkage between the government and the courts, so that the proportion of litigation involving key projects is maintained at less than 10% of potential disputes, and more than 30% of the disputes that enter litigation are resolved through mediation and settlement.
The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is connected by mountains and rivers, and resources are shared, and ecological and environmental protection is the key area to promote the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei.
In a civil public interest lawsuit on environmental pollution, a public interest organization received reports from a number of passengers that on an ordinary passenger train between Beijing and Zhangjiakou passing along the route of the Winter Olympics, the railway company involved in the case allowed the train under its management and supervision to set up smoking areas and allowed smokers to smoke in the train, causing air pollution in the train.
After trial, the Beijing No. 4 Intermediate People's Court held that a healthy and civilized lifestyle should be advocated through judicial rulings, smoking control should be strengthened, and a good public environment should be created. In the end, under the guidance of the court, the railway company involved in the case agreed to cancel the smoking area in the relevant train and strengthen the publicity of smoking control in the station and train, and the two parties reached a mediation agreement accordingly.
Hu Jiarong, director of the Research Office of the Beijing Higher People's Court, said that this case is a successful case that plays an active judicial role, embodies the basic principle of giving priority to protecting the life, health and safety of the public and a good living environment, and guides railway enterprises to implement the concept of green development in judicial adjudication, which is conducive to promoting the work of train tobacco control in a steady and orderly manner, and provides a useful demonstration for judicial trials to help the coordinated governance of the ecological environment in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and advocate the green transformation of life and business methods, and has won wide support from all sectors of society.
In order to help build a collaborative innovation community in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei and strengthen the judicial cooperation mechanism for intellectual property rights, the high courts of the three regions signed a framework agreement on judicial protection of intellectual property rights, and promoted the establishment of nine mechanisms, including the improvement of the quality and efficiency of intellectual property trials and the normalization of circuit trials.
On October 31, 2023, the Beijing Internet Court took the lead in signing the Framework Agreement on Strengthening Cooperation on Judicial Protection and Governance of Copyright with the Tianjin Binhai New District Court and the Rongcheng County Court of Hebei Province, giving full play to the respective location and resource advantages of the courts in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, strengthening communication and cooperation in various aspects such as resource integration, collaborative governance, judicial cooperation, sharing and communication, and circuit trials, and building a cooperation mechanism for judicial protection of copyright and a conflict and dispute resolution system in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
Collaborative cultivation to improve quality and efficiency
As one of the first batch of trainees to go to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court for temporary training, An Mengying, an assistant judge of the Intermediate People's Court of Xiong'an New Area, Hebei Province, was deeply touched by the five-month exchange experience.
"In the process of studying patent administrative cases and civil cases involving data and biotechnology, I have gained valuable trial experience, which not only broadens my horizons, but also has a deeper understanding of intellectual property judicial adjudication." An Mengying told reporters.
In recent years, the courts in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have promoted the uniform and correct implementation of laws in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region by regularly organizing and carrying out cadre exchanges and training, education and training, exchanges and cooperation.
From October 16 to 21, 2023, the Beijing Court held the "2023 Training Course for Intellectual Property Adjudication Talents in Beijing Courts" at the China University of Political Science and Law, where 132 judges and police officers from the Beijing Court, Tianjin Court and Hebei Court, as well as 8 police officers from the Beijing Municipal Procuratorate and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice, received the same training. The participants believed that the judicial personnel of the three places received the same training and answered the same questions together, which would help the three places unify the standards of judicial adjudication.
The courts in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei have established a mechanism for sharing resources for personnel training, holding joint training courses in areas such as trial business, judicial and government affairs, investigation and research, and case training in online and offline forms every year, and carrying out a series of multi-form trainings in the form of mutual assignment of trainees, training in different places, and entrusted training, so as to promote the courts of the three places to jointly improve their ability to perform their duties.
On October 19, 2023, the Beijing Internet Court invited university professors to give an online lecture on "Analysis of Several Difficult Issues in the Judicial Protection of Copyright Law", and invited the Binhai New District Court and the Rongcheng Court to study together. In January this year, the court and the Binhai New District Court conducted exchanges and discussions on the common "Internet of Vehicles" series of disputes, and shared experience in the management of the source of litigation in typed cases.
In recent years, the Beijing Municipal People's Court and the Tianjin-Hebei People's Court have jointly carried out activities such as theme party days and joint study sessions, continued to carry out joint special research, and sent 42 judges and judges' assistants to exchange and exercise with the Tianjin-Hebei Court. Since 2023, the courts of Beijing and the courts of Tianjin and Hebei have carried out 27 mutual visits, research and discussions, held 8 seminars on the application of unified law and judicial practice, held 15 online and offline training sessions in the fields of enforcement and juvenile trial, opened platforms such as the "Beijing Law Online Classroom" and high-quality online courses of various courts, and opened platform account permissions for the courts of Tianjin and Hebei, so as to realize the sharing of high-quality courseware resources and data, and vigorously promote mutual learning of advanced experience of the courts of the three places.
"Beijing courts will continue to adhere to the highest standards, the strictest requirements, and the best results, and promote the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei judicial cooperation in a real-time, substantive, and effective manner, and strive to better support and serve the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as a pilot zone for Chinese-style modernization with high-quality justice, high-efficiency cooperation, and high-level services." Ren Xuefeng, vice president of the Beijing Municipal High People's Court, said.
This article is transferred from the 20th issue of "Outlook" in 2024, Xinhua News Agency
Editor: Wang Xi
Review of this article: Zhang Zhongtao