Decisions of the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on Strengthening the Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation were adopted at the 22^nd Session of the Standing Committee of the 15^th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on June 18, 2020 and are hereby promulgated. They shall be effective as of July 1, 2020.

Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress          

June 18, 2020

 

Decisions of the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on Strengthening the Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation

(Adopted at the 22^nd Session of the Standing Committee of the 15^th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on June 18, 2020)

With a view to strengthening the procuratorial public interest litigation, the following Decisions are made in accordance with the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, the Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws and rules, and in the light of the actual circumstances of this Municipality:

1. The procuratorial organs of this Municipality shall give full play to the function of legal supervision, and by making full use of the procuratorial suggestions before litigation, supervising and urging the prosecution, supporting the prosecution, and filing lawsuits, carry out the procuratorial public interest litigation in accordance with the law, safeguard the authority of the Constitution and law, safeguard social fairness and justice, and safeguard the national and social public interests.

The state organs at all levels, enterprises and institutions, social organizations and individuals in this Municipality shall fully understand the importance of strengthening the procuratorial public interest litigation for the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, and actively cooperate with the procuratorial organs to carry out public interest litigation.　

 

2. The procuratorial organs shall, in accordance with the law, strengthen public interest litigation with regard to the protection of ecological environment and resources, food and drug safety, protection of state-owned property, transfer of state-owned land-use right, protection of heroes and martyrs, and such litigation in other fields prescribed by law.

Following the principles of being positive, reliable and prudent, the procuratorial organs may explore and carry out public interest litigation in the fields of urban public security, financial order, intellectual property rights, personal information security, the protection of historic areas and excellent historical buildings centering on the construction of Shanghai's "Five Centers" and its economic and social development.

3. Where civil subjects infringe on the public interests, and the procuratorial organs plan to file civil public interest litigation or criminal procedure with civil public interest litigation, the procedures for pre-litigation announcement shall be performed in accordance with the law. At the expiration of the periods of the public announcements, if the organs or relevant organizations prescribed by law do not bring lawsuits or there are no organs or relevant organizations prescribed by law, the procuratorial organs may bring lawsuits. Where the organs or the relevant organizations prescribed by law bring lawsuits, the procuratorial organs may support the prosecution.

Where the infringers correct the illegal acts on their own, take remedial measures or promise to rectify, the procuratorial organs may consult with the infringers on the assumption of civil liability. Where agreements are reached through consultation, the procuratorial organs may apply to the judicial organs for judicial confirmation. Where no agreement is reached through consultation, the procuratorial organs shall file civil public interest litigation in time.

4. Where administrative organs illegally exercise their functions and powers or fail to act, resulting in infringement of public interests, the procuratorial organs shall communicate with the administrative organs for verification, put forward procuratorial suggestions in time, and urge them to perform their duties according to law. The administrative organs shall perform their duties according to law within the statutory time limits, reply to the procuratorial organs in writing and submit relevant evidential materials for implementing the procuratorial suggestions. Where the administrative organs fail to reply within the time limits, or they are considered still failing to perform their duties according to law after assessing their implementation of the rectification by the procuratorial organs, the procuratorial organs shall bring lawsuits according to law.

The procuratorial organs may submit the procuratorial suggestions and the implementation of the rectification to the standing committees of the people's congress at the same level and send copies to the people's governments at the same level. The procuratorial organs shall improve the quality and level of procuratorial suggestions, supervise according to law and in an accurate way, and play a role in promoting administration according to law, strict law enforcement and promoting social governance. Where the procuratorial organs find that there are legal problems in the administrative normative documents in the public interest litigation, they may put forward opinions and suggestions to the relevant formulation bodies.

5. When handling public interest litigation cases, the procuratorial organs shall exercise the power of investigation and verification according to law and collect evidential materials comprehensively and objectively. Relevant units and individuals shall actively cooperate with the procuratorial organs when they investigate and verify the facts of the cases, obtain evidential materials, entrust notarization or evidence preservation, and carry out other necessary investigation and evidence collection. For those refuse to perform the obligation of assisting in the investigation or hinder the investigation and verification of the procuratorial organs, the procuratorial organs may arrange talks with relevant person and make suggestions for the relevant organs or departments to deal with them in accordance with the provisions of Articles 7, 11, 12 and 18 of these Decisions.

According to the needs of investigation and verification, the procuratorial organs may assign judicial police and procuratorial technical personnel to assist the prosecutors in performing their duties of investigation and verification, or entrust or employ other professional institutions and personnel to participate in the investigation and verification.

6. The procuratorial organs shall improve the level of specialization, standardization and informatization of public interest litigation, strengthen the specialization of public interest litigation institutions of the grassroots procuratorial organs, reinforce the case handling personnel and technical investigators, complete the case handling equipment, and introduce professional and technical forces, so as to improve the ability and quality of handling public interest litigation.

7. The people's governments at all levels and their relevant departments shall actively cooperate with the procuratorial organs in carrying out investigation and verification work such as access to administrative law enforcement files, collection of evidential materials, etc. according to law. For the administrative public interest litigation cases filed by the procuratorial organs, the persons in charge of the accused administrative organs shall appear in court.

8. The administrative organs and procuratorial organs shall establish mechanisms to link administrative law enforcement and public interest litigation, so as to promote the information exchange and sharing between the administrative law enforcement and public interest litigation in terms of clues of unlawful acts, monitoring data, discretion standards, typical cases, etc. Where it is found in administrative law enforcement and audit supervision that public interests may be infringed and it may be necessary to initiate public interest litigation, the relevant organs shall transfer the clues to the procuratorial organs at the same level in time.

9. The judicial organs shall strengthen the specialization and specialization of public interest litigation, give priority to the formation of collegial panels of people's jurors with specialized knowledge to hear public interest litigation cases, and explore and improve the system of expert assistant. The judicial organs shall, in accordance with the law, hear the litigation claims made by the procuratorial organs for confirming the infringement of public interests by illegal acts, preventing the damage of public interests, and promoting the restoration of damaged public interests, and promote the application of punitive damages in public interest lawsuits in relevant fields.

10. The judicial organs shall promptly transfer the case of failure to perform the effective judgment or written order for execution.

Where it is necessary to organize ecological restoration and other assistance in implementation, the cases shall be promptly transferred to the relevant departments or institutions to organize the implementation or notify the relevant administrative organs to participate in the relevant implementation.

The persons subject to enforcement and the assistants in enforcement shall be investigated for legal responsibility for refusing to perform the relevant obligations.　

11. When handling criminal cases in the fields specified in Article 2 of these Decisions, the public security organs may invite the procuratorial organs to intervene in advance; if any clue of public interest litigation cases is found, such cases shall be transferred to the procuratorial organs in a timely manner. When collecting criminal evidence according to law, the public security organs may assist in collecting and fixing the evidence that the criminal suspect infringes on the national interests and public interests according to the suggestions of the procuratorial organs.

The public security organs shall, in accordance with the law, deal with the illegal acts of disturbing and hindering the judicial organs and procuratorial organs in handling public interest litigation cases by means of violence, threat, restriction of personal freedom, gathering people to besiege and so on.

12. Where public officials interfere with or obstruct the investigation and verification of the procuratorial organs according to law, interfere with or obstruct the judicial organs or the procuratorial organs in handling public interest litigation cases according to law, the judicial organs or procuratorial organs may transfer the relevant clues to the supervisory organs for handling according to law if the circumstances are serious. Where the administrative organs fail to implement the procuratorial proposals without justifiable reasons, and if the circumstances are serious, the procuratorial organs may transfer the relevant clues to the supervisory organs if they consider that there is a need to investigate the responsibility of the relevant personnel.

13. In accordance with the development needs of the procuratorial public interest litigation, this Municipality is to improve continuously the relevant public legal service systems, accelerate the construction of judicial appraisal and inspection institutions in the fields of ecological environment, food and drug safety, and explore and improve the working mechanisms of first identification and then payment for public interest litigation cases. The judicial administrative departments shall coordinate and guide the notarial agencies, law firms and professional mediation organizations to provide relevant services for public interest litigation.

14. The Municipal financial departments shall strengthen the financial guarantee for the procuratorial public interest litigation and incorporate the relevant case handling funds into the financial budgets.

This Municipality is to improve the management systems of compensation funds for public interest litigation, improve the management and use of compensation funds, and establish the mechanisms to guarantee the funds for appraisal, evaluation and testing.

15. The social organizations that undertake the responsibilities of environmental protection, consumer rights and interests protection, and the special groups’ rights and interests protection shall actively perform their duties of protecting public interests. The procuratorial organs shall provide necessary support for relevant social organizations to file public interest litigation, strengthen information communication and case clue exchange with relevant social organizations, and promote the formation of a working pattern for the multiple subjects jointly safeguarding the public interests.

The public shall be encouraged to provide clues related to public interest litigation to the procuratorial organs, and guided to participate in the procuratorial public interest litigation in an orderly manner. In accordance with the relevant provisions, the units and individuals that actively participate in and contribute to the procuratorial public interest litigation shall be commended; those making meritorious reports shall be rewarded. The specific measures for rewards for reporting shall be studied and formulated by the procuratorial organs together with the financial departments.

The procuratorial organs shall register and reply to the clues of public interest litigation cases transferred and provided by the state organs, enterprises and institutions, social organizations and individuals.

16. This Municipality is to strengthen the publicity of public interest protection and public interest litigation, enhance the legal sense and the awareness of public interest protection of the whole society, and improve the social awareness and public participation of public interest litigation.

The judicial and procuratorial organs shall strengthen the publicity of the procuratorial public interest litigation by publishing typical cases in time and interpreting the law by cases. The news media shall strengthen the publicity and coverage of public interest litigation, play the role of public opinion supervision, guide the public to express their demands via legal channels, and create a good atmosphere for all walks of life to participate in and support the procuratorial public interest litigation. The education departments shall incorporate the protection of public interests into the moral education curriculum of primary and secondary schools so as to enhance the awareness of the minors to protect public interests consciously.

17. The municipal procuratorial organs shall strengthen cooperation and collaboration with the procuratorial organs in the Yangtze River economic belt and the Yangtze River Delta region, actively explore and improve the cooperation mechanisms of the procuratorial public interest litigation, strengthen information sharing, clue transfer, investigation collaboration, and joint case handling, so as to promote cross-regional systematic governance.

18. The standing committees of the municipal and district people's congresses shall, by listening to and deliberating special work reports, organizing law enforcement inspections, conducting inquiries, and making resolutions and decisions, strengthen supervision over the judicial and procuratorial organs' work of carrying out public interest litigation, and the acceptance and cooperation of administrative organs in the legal supervision according to law.

The standing committees of the municipal and district people's congresses shall give full play to the role of deputies to the people's congresses, organize the deputies to the people's congresses to carry out special investigation and inspection activities on the procuratorial public interest litigation, collect and reflect the opinions and suggestions of all the parties, and urge the relevant parties to implement the work of supporting and protecting the procuratorial public interest litigation.

19. These Decisions shall be effective as of July 1, 2020.