Supreme Court report: There are currently 124 people's jurors in Hong Kong and Macao

China News Service, Beijing, November 3 (Reporters: Xie Yanbing, Zhang Su) The Supreme People's Court's report on the work of people's jurors in the People's Courts was submitted to the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress for review on the 3rd. According to the report, there are currently 124 people's jurors from Hong Kong and Macao and 180 people's jurors from Taiwan compatriots.

People's assessors have the right to participate in trial activities and express opinions independently in accordance with the law, and are known as "judges without robes." In April 2018, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress reviewed and approved the People's Assessor Law.

The report shows that as of June this year, there were 340,000 people's jurors across the country, an increase of 61.9% compared with before the implementation of the People's Assessor Law. Among them, grassroots cadres, farmers, community workers and people with flexible employment accounted for more than 50%, and there were 37,000 ethnic minority people's assessors.

According to the report, since the implementation of the People's Assessor Law, people's jurors have participated in the trial and conclusion of 15.5 million cases. Among them, there were more than 3.66 million criminal cases, more than 10.38 million civil cases, and more than 1.45 million administrative cases; a seven-member collegial panel was formed to hear 45,000 cases, and participated in the trial of a number of major social impact cases such as the "3.07" illegal sand mining case in the Yangtze River and the case of a pregnant woman falling off a cliff overseas.

"In the past practice, the problem of 'accompanying without trial, trial without deliberation' has been continuously improved, the substantive participation of people's jurors in trials has continued to deepen, and the quality of socialist judicial democracy has become more complete." Zhang Jun, President of the Supreme People's Court, said in a report on behalf of the Supreme People's Court on the 3rd.

The report also pointed out that the work of people's assessors is facing some new situations, new problems and difficulties in deepening development.

The report recommends that the revision of the People's Assessor Law be initiated in a timely manner, and matters such as the scope of cases in which people's assessors can participate in trials should be further studied and improved. In addition, we will promote the introduction of financial guarantee management measures for people's assessors to strengthen their performance of duties.