County's 'mobile' court takes a proactive way to settling disputes

Court officers and judges hold a hearing in Hexi No 1 village on March 2. (ZHAO DONGSHAN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Editor's note: The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China set out a blueprint for China's path to modernization, with the aim of guiding the development of all walks of life in the new era and contributing positively to global progress. Through the year, China Daily will run a series of picture stories that highlight important waypoints on this journey. In this second installment, we focus on a "mobile court" in Shandong province.

The people's court in Yiyuan, a mountainous county in Shandong province, has long practiced a policy of "working on the front line" by sending court officials and officers regularly to villages deep in the mountains to visit households and mediate disputes, and teach people about the law.

It has also been exploring grassroots forms of what China refers to as "whole-process" democracy, setting up mediation rooms and organizing a network of 100 mediators, and its judges take the initiative to visit households to resolve conflicts in their early stages.

As a result, Yiyuan's residents now think of their people's court as a "mobile" court, and last year, it helped resolve 2,180 disputes before litigation.

Over 70 percent of the people living in Yiyuan make a living from growing fruit, and disputes frequently arise over trading. In order to protect the economic interests of fruit farmers and promote the development of the county's fruit industry, court officials have gone into the field to teach about legal matters, and to promote mobile court hearings and mediation. They have organized around 300 hearings in the past few years.

Officers from the people's court in Yiyuan county, Shandong province, help a witness put his fingerprint on his testimony at Lucun village on March 14. (WANG JING / CHINA DAILY)

The court officers teach residents of Dongli township about the law on Feb 20. (ZHAO DONGSHAN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Judges from the court talk with a shepherd in Lucun on Feb 16. (ZHAO DONGSHAN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

A court officer calms the family member of a litigant on March 2. (ZHAO DONGSHAN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Court officers remind a vegetable farmer of possible risks related to trading near a village in Yuezhuang township on March 1. (ZHAO DONGSHAN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Court officers measure the circumference of a damaged tree in Yuezhuang on March 14. (WANG JING / CHINA DAILY)

Court officers on the way to a hearing of a case in a vegetable greenhouse in Yanya township on Feb 16. (ZHAO DONGSHAN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Officers hold a hearing on a playground in Xili township on March 15. (WANG JING / CHINA DAILY)