The Supreme People’s Courts (SPC) has been building a rule-based online system for the people’s courts by promulgating rules and learning from the development of e-justice.

On 22 Feb. 2022, the SPC issued the “Online Operation Rules of People’s Courts” (hereinafter “the Operation Rules”, 人民法院在线运行规则), with effect from 1 March 2022.

On 17 June and 31 Dec. 2021, the SPC issued respectively the “Online Litigation Rules of People’s Courts” (hereinafter “the Litigation Rules”, 人民法院在线诉讼规则) and “Online Mediation Rules of People’s Courts” (hereinafter “the Mediation Rules”, 人民法院在线调解规则) respectively.

So far, these three rules have established a comprehensive online court system in China.

1.The Operation Rules mainly focuses on the internal management of the court, i.e. the development, application, management of information systems such as litigation platforms and mediation platforms.

2.The Litigation Rules mainly focuses on online litigation, i.e. how parties can use the electronic litigation platform to complete all or part of the litigation process online including filing, mediation, exchange of evidence, interrogation, trial, service of process, etc.

3.The Mediation Rules mainly focuses on online mediation, i.e. how parties can rely on the people’s court mediation platform to conduct online mediation activities.

Through these three rules, the SPC has given an exhaustive summary of the achievements in digitalization and intelligentization of people’s courts in China over the last decade.