context: Involving the public in the dispute settlement process is a recent trend in legal reform. In addition to the following measures, Fu also announced in a recent interview a plan to set up online people's mediation committees in response to the growing number of cyber disputes. Mediation committees have been long opposed by legal reformers for their potential to be used to skirt due process.
Fu Zhenghua 傅政华 Ministry of Justice minister stressed the role of people's mediators at the National People's Mediation Work Conference in Wenzhou on 10 and 11 May.
The first meeting of the Central Deepening Reform Commission passed 'Opinions on Strengthening the development of people's mediator teams', which highlighted the value of 'Fengqiao Experience'. Dating from the Mao era, this refers to the principle of relying on the people to solve disputes locally. In contemporary terms, says Fu, the idea should mean solving petition cases through mediation, and channeling those unresponsive to mediation into the legal system.
In their work, people's mediators should promptly report all cases of criminal activities, mass incidents and petitions that try to skip ranks and appeal to higher authorities, says Fu. The people's mediation system should also effectively connect with administrative and judicial mediation, making use of the big data that will become available on an information platform currently under development, he adds.