Court issues guidelines for cases tried in FTZ

Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court released guidelines Tuesday on trying cases inside the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ), which opened last September.

"The guidelines basically provide legal thinking for local judges when they handle cases, said Chen Libin, president of Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court. "It will evolve with the enrichment of legal practices in the FTZ in the future."

The biggest challenge currently facing local judges is accurately applying existing laws to unprecedented situations that may arise, Chen said at Tuesday's press conference. The ultimate goal is to better protect the rights and interests of the involved parties and create a safe business environment with a sound legal system.

As long as the activities are not illegal, the involved parties are allowed to explore possibilities. "Also, there might be changes in the legal proceedings," Chen said. "For example, a party can apply for property preservation at local arbitration agencies, so the courts need to make changes accordingly."

Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court has handled eight cases from the FTZ since it was established, said Shan Suhua, a presiding judge on the court's collegial panel specializing in cases at the FTZ. Half of the cases were disputes over intellectual property rights. The rest were appeals, as well as an international commercial dispute.

"It is inevitable that the legal practices in the FTZ are in a more global setting," Shan told the Global Times. "One of the difficulties that local judges might have is to understand the reasoning and rationale of those international practices and customs and how to apply them to each dispute."

Shan said the courts are going to offer judges additional training, so that they are capable of settling the disputes in a fair and reasonable manner.

Another way to improve the quality of trials is to employ more people's jurors with backgrounds in finance, real estate, commerce, intellectual property rights and labor disputes.

Usually, the standing committee of the local people's congress selects people's jurors, who enjoy the same rights as judges.

So, the courts are working with the standing committee to build a profession legal staff, Shan said.