Shanghai Financial Court inaugurated, first in the country
August 28, 2018 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
The Shanghai Financial Court, which specializes in finance-related lawsuits and is the first of its kind in China, began operating last week. The new institution is meant to provide a better business environment for investors from home and abroad. The intermediate-level court focuses on civil and administrative disputes over financial issues, including loans, insurance, securities and cases against financial authorities. For the court to handle cases, the minimum amounts at issue are CNY100 million if both parties are in Shanghai and CNY50 million if one party is not based in the city. Cases that do not meet the minimum are handled by district courts. Criminal cases are not accepted by the Financial Court.
“If we take online lending as an example, lawsuits against online lending platforms will be accepted and heard at the court, but criminal cases in which such platforms are suspected of committing illegal activities won’t be accepted,” said Zhao Hong, President of the Court. Twenty-eight judges will oversee case hearings and trials at the court, which has 66 staff members. Most of the judges are veterans of the lower-level financial tribunals of the city’s courts. Individuals and businesses can register cases, check progress, apply to read legal documents and view court decisions on the bilingual Chinese-English website of the Court. Sheng Yongqiang, Vice President of the Shanghai High People’s Court, said that globally financial centers have almost all set up legal system mechanisms aligned with their financial systems.
From 2013 to 2017, courts in Shanghai heard nearly 480,000 finance-related cases as courts of first instance and the number of such lawsuits in Shanghai grew by an average 51% year-on-year. The financial court was another innovation in China’s judicial system after the intellectual property courts and an internet court were set up, the China Daily reports.
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