Court Reform: Previous Cases Allowed for Reference

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, August 31, 2002

Court Reform: Previous Cases Allowed for Reference

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Courts in north China's Tianjin Municipality started allowing previous cases for reference in civil and commercial cases from Friday, in what is regarded as a breakthrough in China's provincial-level courts.

"The system has been adopted to cope with new situations in judicial work," said Yang Runshi, a senior justice of the Tianjin Municipal Higher People's Court, adding the system was to use typical previous cases as references for later trials of similar cases.

Chinese legal professionals said at grassroots level, one courtcould issue immensely different rulings in similar cases due to different views of the judges.

"The system would help to maintain fairness and uniformity in the law," said Pan Haitao, a lawyer with Junyue Law Firm.

Chinese legal professionals said the system would not change the consistent principle of independent justice in Chinese courts at various levels.

"Unlike the British and US legal systems, Chinese courts would only use previous cases as references," said Chen Yaodong, an associate professor of law at Tianjin-based Nankai University.

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