Supreme People's Court of China

Composition and Organisation

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) (Zuigao Renmin Fayuan, 最高人民法院) is the highest judicial organ of the People’s Republic of China, established under the Constitution of 1982 and the Organic Law of the People’s Courts (2018 revision). The SPC is composed of a President, Vice-Presidents, division heads (tingzhang), and judges. The President is elected by the National People’s Congress for a term of five years, renewable once. The current President, Zhang Jun, assumed office in March 2023.

The SPC is organised into adjudication divisions (shenpan ting) covering civil law (Divisions I, II, III, and IV), criminal law (Divisions I, II, III, IV, and V), administrative law, intellectual property, and other specialised areas. Each division is headed by a division head and comprises a panel of judges. The Adjudication Committee (Shenpan Weiyuanhui) is the highest internal decision-making body, composed of the President, Vice-Presidents, division heads, and senior judges, and decides major, difficult, or complex cases and provides guidance on the application of law.

Judicial Interpretations (Sifa Jieshi)

The SPC’s power to issue judicial interpretations (sifa jieshi, 司法解释) is one of the most distinctive features of the Chinese legal system. Authorised by the Organic Law of the People’s Courts (Article 18) and the Decision of the Standing Committee of the NPC on Strengthening Legal Interpretation Work (1981), the SPC issues authoritative interpretations of statutes that have binding effect on all courts. Judicial interpretations function as a significant subsidiary source of law, filling gaps left by broadly drafted legislation.

The SPC issues judicial interpretations in several forms. Interpretations (jiedu) comprehensively interpret a statute or a set of legal issues. Provisions (guiding) address specific procedural or substantive questions. Replies (pifu) answer specific questions raised by lower courts. Minutes of national conferences (huiyi jiyao), while not formally designated as judicial interpretations, provide guidance that lower courts follow in practice.

The SPC’s judicial interpretations follow a drafting process that includes research, consultation with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and relevant state agencies, public comment periods (for major interpretations), and approval by the SPC’s Adjudication Committee. The interpretations must be reported to the Standing Committee of the NPC for filing review, though the NPC Standing Committee rarely exercises its power to revise or annul SPC interpretations.

Guiding Cases (Zhidaoxing Anli)

The Case Guidance System (Anli Zhidao Seido), formally established in 2010 through the Provisions on Case Guidance, allows the SPC to select and publish guiding cases (zhidaoxing anli, 指导性案例) that serve as reference for lower courts in adjudicating similar cases. As of 2025, the SPC has published over 200 guiding cases across civil, criminal, administrative, and enforcement categories.

Guiding cases are selected from judgments of all court levels. The SPC’s Research Office evaluates candidate cases and recommends them for approval by the Adjudication Committee. Published guiding cases include a summary of the case’s guiding principle, the basic facts, the adjudication result, and the reasoning. The guiding principle is the normative component: the rule or standard that should be followed in similar cases.

The binding force of guiding cases is debated. Article 9 of the Provisions on Case Guidance provides that courts “should refer to” (yingdang canzhao) guiding cases when adjudicating similar cases. This falls short of binding precedent but creates a strong expectation of consistency. Judges who depart from a guiding case should provide reasons for the departure. The SPC’s 2018 Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening Case Guidance emphasised that guiding cases should be cited in judgments and applied unless good cause is shown.

Case Docket Reform

The case docket reform (Sifa Shixian Zhidu Gaige), implemented from 2015, fundamentally changed the SPC’s relationship with its caseload. The reform replaced the previous case acceptance review system (li’an shencha zhi) — under which the SPC decided which cases to accept — with a case registration system (li’an dengji zhi) — under which the SPC must accept all cases that meet basic jurisdictional requirements.

The reform dramatically increased the SPC’s caseload. The SPC received 15,000 cases in 2014; by 2024, annual case receipts exceeded 50,000. The SPC responded by streamlining procedures, increasing the use of summary procedures, and delegating routine appeals to the circuit courts. The docket reform reduced the SPC’s discretion over its docket but created case management challenges that the circuit court system was designed to address.

Circuit Courts

The SPC established six circuit courts (xunhui fating, 巡回法庭) from 2015 to 2016 as permanent branches of the SPC located outside Beijing. Each circuit court functions as a branch of the SPC and handles appeals and retrials from the region.

The First Circuit Court (Shenzhen, established January 2015) covers Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan. The Second Circuit Court (Shenyang, January 2015) covers Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. The Third Circuit Court (Nanjing, December 2016) covers Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi. The Fourth Circuit Court (Zhengzhou, December 2016) covers Henan, Shanxi, Hubei, and Anhui. The Fifth Circuit Court (Chongqing, December 2016) covers Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The Sixth Circuit Court (Xi’an, December 2016) covers Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang.

The circuit courts exercise jurisdiction over appeals from Higher People’s Courts and retrial applications in the region. Each circuit court is staffed by judges assigned from the SPC on a rotating basis. The circuit courts have processed tens of thousands of cases since their establishment, reducing the cost of access to the SPC for parties outside Beijing and alleviating the SPC’s Beijing docket.

SPC Administrative Functions

Beyond adjudication, the SPC exercises administrative functions over the national court system. The SPC supervises the administration of justice (shenpan jiandu) by all lower people’s courts, issuing guidance, conducting judicial quality assessments, and coordinating nationwide judicial policies. The SPC also manages the judicial appointment system for SPC judges, oversees the national judge training programme at the National Judges College, and administers the court information technology system, including the smart court initiative and the China Judgments Online platform.

Conclusion

The SPC occupies a unique position in the Chinese legal system — it is at once the highest appellate court, the author of binding judicial interpretations, the curator of the guiding cases system, the administrator of the circuit court network, and the supervisor of the national court system. Its institutional role has expanded significantly since the 2014 judicial reforms, with the case guidance system, the transparency platforms, and the circuit courts representing major innovations. The SPC’s capacity to shape the development of Chinese law through judicial interpretations gives it a quasi-legislative function that distinguishes it from apex courts in common law systems.