Notice of the Supreme People's Court on Issuing the Several Opinions on Further Protecting and Regulating the Legal Exercise of Administrative Litigation Rights by the Parties

· Document Number：No. 25 [2017] of the Supreme People's Court

· Area of Law： Administrative Litigation

· Level of Authority： Documents of Judicial Interpretation Nature

· Date issued：08-31-2017

· Effective Date：08-31-2017

· Status： Effective

· Issuing Authority： Supreme People's Court

Notice of the Supreme People's Court on Issuing the Several Opinions on Further Protecting and Regulating the Legal Exercise of Administrative Litigation Rights by the Parties
(No. 25 [2017] of the Supreme People's Court)

The higher people's courts of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government;the Military Court of the People's Liberation Army; and the Production and Construction Corps Branch of the Higher People's Court of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region:
The Several Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Further Protecting and Regulating the Legal Exercise of Administrative Litigation Rights by the Parties are hereby issued to you for your conscientious implementation.
Supreme People's Court
August 31, 2017

Several Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Further Protecting and Regulating the Legal Exercise of Administrative Litigation Rights by the Parties
Since the synchronous implementation of the new Administrative Procedure Law and the case-docketing registration system, the people's courts at all levels have adhered to the working rule of justice for the people, further strengthened the awareness of protecting litigation right, focused onradically solving the problem of “difficulties in case docketing” highly concerned by the peoplefrom the perspectives of rules and source, and docketed all cases that should be accepted in accordance with the law and accepted all litigations that should be accepted, which enabled the administrative litigation rights of the people to be fully protected, the case-docketing channels to be comprehensive and smooth, and the implementation of the new Administrative Procedure Law and thecase-docketing registration system reform to make significant achievements. However, at the same time, the phenomenon that the parties are obstructed from exercising administrative litigation rights has not been completely eliminated; and the increasing phenomena that some parties abuse their administrative litigation rights and waste judicial resources have been seen. In order to better protect and regulate the parties' legal exercise of their administrative litigation rights, direct the parties to express their appeals in a reasonable manner, and promote the substantive resolution of administrative disputes, the following opinions are hereby offered in consideration of the practices in the trial of administrative cases:
I. Further enhancing the awareness of protecting litigation right, actively responding to the reasonable expectations of the people, and providing powerful guarantee for the parties' legal and reasonable exercise of their litigation rights
1. The people's courts at all levels shall attach great importance to the protection of litigation rights, adhere to taking the Constitution and the law as the basis, be oriented by meeting the needs of the people, take the substantive resolution of administrative disputes as the objective, register and docket all administrative cases that should be accepted in accordance with the law to achieve the docketing of all cases that should be accepted and the acceptance of all litigations that should be accepted, so as to effectively maintain and guarantee the rights of citizens, legal persons and other organizations to file administrative litigations in accordance with the law.
2. The people's courts at all levels shall truly change the concept, strictly implement the provisions of the new Administrative Procedure Law, resolutely implement the case-docketing registration system, and register and docket the cases that meet the statutory litigation conditions on the spot; and are strictly prohibited from, not as legally provided for, refusing to accept complaints or issuing written certificates after accepting complaints on the ground of the difficulty and complexity of the cases, the balance of interests of departments, or the impacts on the closing of the cases at the end of the year.
3. The people's courts at all levels shall keep enhancing the awareness of protecting citizens, legal persons and other organizations' legal exercise of their litigation rights, and, where any parties need to supplement litigation materials, inform the partiesat one time of all necessary supplements and corrections, the materials to be supplemented andthe time limits for making supplements and corrections; and where the parties are lack of legal knowledge, the people's courts shall give effective litigation guidance and legal interpretations thereto.
4. The people's courts at all levels shall resolutely review and restrict the “local policies” on the litigation rights of the parties, so as to avoid the excessive examination of case docketing and the illegal setting of whether the basis for the parties to file cases are sufficient, the facts are clear, the evidence is conclusive, or the legal relationship is definite, among others, as case-docketing conditions. Where a decision on docketing a case cannot be made on the spot, a people's court shall, in strict accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Law and judicial interpretations, decide whether to docket the case within seven days. Where the people's court neither dockets the case or rules not to docket the case within seven days, nor requires the party to supplement and correct litigation materials, the party may file a litigation with the people's court at the next higher level. Where the people's court at the next higher level deems that the case meets the conditions for filing a case, it shall docket and try the case or designate any other court at a lower level to docket and try the case.
5. Where a people's court finds it has no jurisdiction over a case which falls within the scope of the cases that may be accepted by the people's court, it shall notify the party to file a litigation with a people's court with jurisdiction; and where the case has been docketed, it shall be transferred to people's courts that have jurisdiction over the case. Where a case is not the one that shall be subject to the prerequisite reconsideration procedure, a people's court may not refuse to docket the case or to accept litigation materials on the ground that the litigation filed by the party has not been reconsidered by the administrative organ. Where the litigation filed by a party may exceed the time limit for filing a litigation, a people's court shall conduct conscientious examination; and where the time limit for filing a litigation is exceeded truly due to force majeureor any other reason which is not attributable to the party, the people's court shall not docket the case on the ground that time limit for filing a litigation is exceeded.
6. The people's courts at all levels shall further improve their litigation service capabilities, make full use of “big data,” “Internet +,” “artificial intelligence” and other modern technologies to continue to promote the building of litigation service halls, litigation service network, 12368 hotline, and intelligent service platforms, among others, and keep innovating working philosophies and perfecting service measures, so as to provide one-stop and three-dimensional services for the people in terms of submission of materials, handling of formalities, obtainment of legal instruments and case-docketing guidance, consultation and reply, and information inquiry, among others, and provide quality, convenient and effective litigation guidance and services for the legal exercise of litigation rights by the people.
7. The people's courts at all levels shall guarantee in accordance with the law the litigation rights of the parties with financial difficulties and poor litigation implementation capacities, enable the parties that truly have difficulty in exercising litigation rights to smoothly enter the courts to participate in the proceedings by means of legal aid and judicial relief, among others, and actively establish the mechanisms for the communication and linkage with lawyers' associations, legal aid centers and other entities, so as to provide the parties with timely and effective legal aid, and improve the litigation implementation capacities of the parties.
8. The people's courts at all levels shall strictly implement the Provisions on the Recording and Notification of and Accountability for Interventions in Judicial Activities and Handling of Specific Cases by Officials issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council and the Provisions on the Recording and Accountability of Staff Members of Judicial Organs for Their Interventions in Case Handling issued by the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, timely stop and correct interventions in legal case docketing, deliberate delay in docketing cases, artificial control of case docketing and other violations of laws and regulations; and, as for the organs and individuals that obstruct or restrict the parties from legally exercising litigation rights or intervene in the legal acceptance and trial of administrative cases by the people's courts, the people's courts shall make truthful records, and report to the politics and law committees of the Party committees at the same level as required, and may, at the same time, notify the organs at their next higher levels or supervisory organs, and offer suggestions for handing them.
II. Correctly guiding the legal exercise of litigation rights by the parties, and strictly regulating malicious litigation, vexatious litigation and the other acts of abusing litigation rights
9. The people's courts at all levels shall correctly understand the spiritual essence of the case-docketing registration system, and, while preventing excessive examination, pay attention to insisting on necessary examination. In addition to examining the litigation conditions as prescribed in Article 49 of the new Administrative Procedure Law, a people's court shall refuse to docket a case in which the litigation matters have not been subject to the statutory prerequisite reconsideration procedure, the litigation has truly exceeded the statutory time limit for filing a litigation, or the plaintiff truly has no interest in the administrative act or the litigation conditions otherwise obviously fail to be met, but shall give the reasons for refusing to docket the case to the party.
10 The people's courts at all levels shall direct the parties to legally exercise litigation rights. Where a litigation is filed repeatedly concerning the same matter without any new fact or reason, or a litigation is filed due to the repeated filing of administrative reconsiderations, or a litigation is otherwise filed violating the principle of “non bis in idem ,” the people's court shall not docket the case in accordance with the law, and give the reasons for not docketing the case to the party. Where a party files a litigation against the re-handling, explanatory notification or procedural act conducted by an administrative organ without specifying the rights and obligations thereof, the people's court shall not docket the case, and shall make effective interpretations to the party, so as to avoid unnecessary litigation burdens on the party.
11. The people's courts at all levels shall accurately understand the legal connotation of the “having an interest” as prescribed in paragraph 1 of Article 25 of the new Administrative Procedure Law, and examine in accordance with the law whether the administrative acts of administrative organs are truly closely-related to the increase, decrease, gain or loss of the rights and obligations of the parties and whether the parties truly have the actual rights and interests worthy of protection in the litigations; and shall not blur or weaken the litigation conditions concerning the relationship of interest. For a litigation that truly has any interest in an administrative act, the people's court shall docket the case.
12. Where a party files a litigation against the handling of or reply to the party's request for the supervision and correction of the administrative act of the administrative organ at a lower level by the administrative organ at a higher level or the failure in the handling thereof or any other hierarchical supervision act, or against the notice, command, reply or reply letter or any other internal instruction sent by the administrative organ at a higher level to the administrative organ at a lower level, among others, the people's court may, while ruling not to docket the case, notify the party that it may file a litigation against the administrative act of the administrative organ at a lower level in accordance with the law. Where any of the aforesaid acts sets the right and obligations of the party or has actual impact on the rights and obligations of the party, the people's court shall docket the case.
13. Where a party files a litigation against the administrative act of an administrative organ concerning any complaint, tip-off, accusation or report of problems or any other matter, the people's court shall conscientiously examine whether the party has an interest in the party's complaint, tip-off, accusation or report of problems or any other matter; and where there is truly any interest, the people's court shall docket the case in accordance with the law, and shall not refuse to accept it without exception. Where a party files a litigation that obviously has no litigation interest, and is unable or unnecessary to be protected through judicial channels, for examine, the party files a litigation with an administrative organ that obviously has no jurisdiction over administrative affairs,territorial or hierarchical jurisdiction against the administrative organ's handling of, reply to or failure to handle the party's complaint, tip-off, accusation or report of problems, the people's court shall not docket the case.
14. The people's courts at all levels shall correctly distinguish the parties' requests for protecting their legitimate rights and interests and the parties' complaint visits and letters, so as to avoid treating the parities' requests for the performance of statutory duties by administrative organs as the parties' complaint visits and letters. Where a party files a litigation against the handling opinions, re-examination opinions or review opinions offered by an office for handling complaint visits and letters in accordance with the Regulation on Complaint Visits and Letters or against its failure to perform the duties as prescribed in the Regulation on Complaint Visits and Letters, the people's court shall not docket the case in accordance with the law. However, where the reply to any complaint visit or letter re-sets or has actual impacts on the rights and obligations of the party, the people's court shall docket the case.
15. The people's courts at all levels shall stop abuse of litigation rights, malicious litigation and other acts in accordance with the law. Abuse of litigation rights and malicious litigation consume administrative resources, occupy judicial resources, affect the normal exercise of litigation rights of citizens, legal persons and other organizations, undermine judicial authority, and hinder the progress of the rule of law. As for the litigations filed against jeopardizing state sovereignty and territorial integrity, endangering national security, undermining national unity and ethnic unity, or violating the state policies for religion, the people's courts shall not docket the cases in accordance with the law. For the very few parties that repeatedly file large number of litigations on a long-term basis not for the purpose of protecting their legitimate rights and interests, interfere with administrative organs, or disturb litigation orders, the people's courts shall not docket the cases in accordance with the law.
16. The people's courts at all levels shall fully respect and protect the rights to know of citizens, legal persons or other organizations, and try in accordance with the law the cases involving applications for government information disclosure filed by the parties in a timely manner. Where the parities, obviously violating the legislative purposes in the Regulation of the People's Republic of China on the Disclosure of Government Information, repeatedly file massive applications for government information disclosure and further file administrative litigations, or the litigations filed by the parties obviously have no actual interest related to their legitimate rights and interests worthy of protection, the people's courts shall not docket the cases in accordance with the law. Where a citizen, legal person or any other organization files a litigation against an administrative organ's handling of, reply to, or failure to handle his or its application for disclosing the government information that has been issued or known, or his or its request for the production or collection of government information or the summarization, analysis or processing, among others, of existing government information by the administrative organ, the people's court shall not docket the case in accordance with the law.
17. In the process of determining abuse of litigation rights or malicious litigations, strict standards shall be implemented, and whether a party has the subjective intent of abusing a litigation right or filing a malicious litigation shall be examined from the perspectives of the quantity, cycle and purposes of the litigations filed by the party and whether the filing of the litigation has any legitimate interest, among others. For the parties which fall within the scope of those abusing litigation rights or filing malicious litigations, exploration shall be made to establish effective mechanisms to stop such actsin a timely and effective manner in accordance with the law.