This page aims to offer a guidance on where you can locate sources of PRC cases with various categories of resources. Categories of sources includes:
Since China adopts a civil law system, the use of case law is not based under such adoption. Thus, law reports and its reporting system is not available in the country.
Yet, selected cases or significant judgments will be reported in gazettes of the Supreme People’s Court of PRC, Supreme People’s Procuratorate and Collection of China’s Judgments (人民法院案例選). Reporting of cases and the Collections are also published by various commercial publisher, such as Law Press China (法律出版社).
You may use the below search terms in Advance Search under FIND@HKUL to look for titles under the HKU Libraries’ collection.
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Founded by the Peking University in 1985, PKULAW serves as a reputable tool in the field by providing all-inclusive resources of Chinese legal information, including Judicial Cases (司法案例). The earliest case available can be dated back to 1932, and searches can be done by keywords and with additional filters. The English Library of PKULAW is available via HKUL subscription, in which English content of cases are provided.
*HKUL subscription covers contents under these categories: 法律法规, 司法案例 and English
Provided by LexisNexis, Lexis China offers comprehensive resources including Chinese laws and regulations, case law, commentaries and news. Cases are available from 1981, with search done by entering keywords or by adding filters. Selected contents are presented as bilingual in this database.
Provided by Thomson Reuters, a wide range of resources on China law and regulations can be obtained. Cases can be searched with keywords, or browsed by designated areas, such as Arbitration and Patent. Case headnotes are given in English, while content of cases are generally delivered in Chinese.
中國裁判文書網 China Judgments Online (click to visit)
Maintained by the Supreme People’s Court of PRC (中華人民共和國最高人民法院), this platform serves as the largest collection of judgments made from Chinese courts in the country, with cases available starting from 2013. Searches can be done by categories of judgments with keywords, or filtered by the court of states. Access to various Information Disclosure Websites (信息公開網), such as China’s Enforcement Information Disclosure Website (中國審判流程信息公開網), can be located at the bottom navigation menu.
To view search results and full text of the judgments, registration is required with your phone number.
*Please note that all judgment are reported in Simplified Chinese. Official English translations of judgments are not available.
中國法院網 China Courts (click to visit)
Supported by the Supreme People’s Court of PRC and the State Council Information Office (國務院新聞辦公室), the China Courts website offers comprehensive collection of Chinese legal resources and materials, and news to the general public.
*Please note that all judgment are reported in Simplified Chinese. Official English translations of judgments are not available.
中國庭審公開網 China Court Trial Online (click to visit)
Authorized by the Supreme People’s Court of PRC, the China Court Trial Online provides live streaming of court trials, with recordings of the trials from the last 6 months available for looking back on. Searching can be done by case name, case number or judges’ name, with filtering of type of case and court of delivery.
*Please note that all judgment are reported in Simplified Chinese. Official English translations of judgments are not available.
Asian Legal Information Institute (AsianLII) (click to visit)
To promote free access of legal information to the general public, AsianLII offers consolidated materials related to Chinese law under different categories, in which most content is openly accessible.
China Justice Observer (click to visit)
Sponsored by the Academy for the Rule of Law at China University of Political Science and Law, this site is created and maintained by researchers at China University of Political Science and Law, committed to offer latest updates on the Chinese judicial system. Contents can be filtered by different tags added to the materials.
