HANGZHOU
Artificial-intelligence judges, cyber-courts, and verdicts delivered on chat apps — welcome to China’s brave new world of justice spotlighted by authorities this week. China is encouraging digitisation to streamline case handling within its sprawling court system using cyberspace and technologies like blockchain and cloud computing, China’s Supreme People’s Court said in a policy paper.
The efforts include a “mobile court” offered on popular social media platform WeChat that has already handled more than three million legal cases or other judicial procedures since its launch in March, according to the Supreme People’s Court. The paper was released this week as judicial authorities gave journalists a glimpse inside a “cyber court” — the country’s first — established in 2017 in Hangzhou to deal with legal disputes that have a digital aspect.
In a demonstration, authorities showed how the Hangzhou Internet Court operates, featuring an online interface with litigants appearing by video chat as an AI judge — complete with onscreen avatar — prompts them to present their cases.
“Does the defendant have any objection to the nature of the judicial blockchain evidence submitted by the plaintiff?” the black-robed virtual judge sitting under China’s national emblem asked in a pretrial meeting. “No objection,” a human plaintiff answered.
Cases handled at the Hangzhou court include online trade disputes, copyright cases, and e-commerce product liability claims. Litigants can register their civil complaints online and later log on for their court hearing. Putting simple functions like that in the hands of the virtual judge helps ease the burden on human justices, who monitor the proceedings and make the major rulings in each case, officials said.
The digitisation push is partly to help courts keep up with a growing caseload created by mobile payments and ecommerce in China, which has the world’s largest number of mobile internet users at around 850 million. The “mobile court” option on WeChat — China’s leading social-media messaging platform — allows users to complete case filings, hearings, and evidence exchange without physically appearing in court. It has been launched in 12 provinces and regions, authorities said.
Courtesy: AFP
