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China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) said on Saturday that it would speed up the establishment of circuit courts in abidance of its pledge to advance the rule of law.
The court made the announcement following the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committe, which took place from Oct. 20 to 23. The party agreed to set a new blueprint for rule of law with which it will implement sweeping judicial reforms as it champions the all-encompassing role of the Consititution in the country's judicial system.
In compliance with the new blueprint, the supreme court said that it would speed up efforts to set up special courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou tasked to deal with intellectual property rights cases, according to China Daily.
The court is also seeking to enhance accountability of judges, unify the management of personnel and finance of local courts below provincial level, and set up a system with which to record officials' interference in judicial cases.
The country's highest court also promised to strengthen its system by enhancing its way of handling cases, addressing the corruption among its ranks and weeding out "bad apples" plaguing the judicial system.
Some observers, however, expressed doubt about the proceedings of the ruling party's session last week, according to a report by Business Spectator.
"They need a strong judiciary to capture, or to resolve, all the disputes on the streets," said Fu Hualing, a law professor at Hong Kong University.
"Basically, you're creating a sphere of autonomy over which you don't have total control in the end," the professor said.
"They are talking about the legal system in a very narrow sense," said Zheng Yongian, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.
"The goal, of course, is the continuous survival of the Communist party," Zheng said.
