China to explore establishing transregional courts, procuratorates

BEIJING -- China will consider establishing courts and procuratorates with jurisdictions spanning across different administrative regions, according to a legal reform plan published in full text Tuesday.

The move will help to eliminate interference in judicial cases and ensure the independence of courts and prosecutors, said President Xi Jinping in an explanation to the legal reform plan which was also released on Tuesday.

The new legal reform plan was adopted last week at the fourth plenary session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

The number of judicial cases involving different administrative regions and the amount of money involved in these cases has been increasing in China with the development of the socialist market economy and appearance of administrative lawsuits.

As a result, local officials paid growing attention to such cases and some even took advantage of their posts to meddle in particular cases within their jurisdiction, according to Xi.

Such phenomena is prejudicial to equally protecting rights of parties from other administrative regions, ensuring the independence of courts, supervising the government to administer by law, and safeguarding fair enforcement of laws, Xi said.

Establishing courts and procuratorates beyond the limits of administrative regions will help to "form a pattern in which regular cases are handled by courts within the administrative region while special cases are handled by courts with jurisdictions spanning across different administrative regions," Xi said.