30% citizen plaintiffs win lawsuits against govt departments

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 02, 2004

30% citizen plaintiffs win lawsuits against govt departments

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People's courts at various levels in China heard 913,091 cases with government departments as defendants from 1989 to 2003, which helped effectively settle disputes between the common people and officials.

Cao Jianming, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, said Thursday at a symposium that the success rate for common people hit 30 percent among all the closed cases.

The symposium, marking the 15th anniversary of the promulgationof the Administrative Procedure Law in 1989, said the law had enabled citizens to sue the governments and their departments at all levels if their rights or interests were violated by administrative decisions or moves.

Most of the administrative cases involved public security, resources disputes, requisition of land and resettlement of displaced people. Now cases concerning economic affairs are on therise, especially those related to the standardization of economic order.

People used to be afraid of the government or were unwilling tosue it. Some even resorted to revenge or went to extremes to seek justice, said a judge with the Administrative Court of the SupremePeople's Court, who declined to give his name.

"But today, more and more people know that they have to turn tolaw to defend their legitimate rights and interests," the judge said.

To ensure the smooth implementation of the Administrative Procedure Law, China has strengthened training for special judge teams. Statistics show that by February 2003, people's courts all over China had set up 3,227 administrative courts with about 11,720 judges.

Source: Xinhua

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