More administrative disputes end up in court

More than one-third of administrative disputes in 2020 were handled through legal action in the city, according to a white paper released by the city's high court during a press conference yesterday.

The Shanghai High People's Court accepted 5109 administrative cases last year, and solved 1974 administrative disputes of first and second instance, accounting for 35.9 percent of all the administrative cases, an increase of 4.3 percent over 2019.

In 4.1 percent of administrative cases handled last year, the administrative organs lost.

Shanghai's courts and the government's legal affairs department jointly promoted the working mechanism for the person in charge of the administrative agency to participate in the trials. The attendance rate for heads of administrative organs continued to rise last year. The heads in charge of administrative agencies appeared in court for 1,460 cases. 

Meanwhile, the participation of lawyers in the city's administrative litigation has been further improved which contributed to solve the administrative cases and disputes, said Hou Danhua, the chief judge of the administrative adjudication.

In 2020, the city's courts increased the protection of administrative cases involving people's standard of living. A total of 2,745 first-instance administrative cases including civil affairs, work-related injury identification, human resources and social insurance, environmental protection, and tax collection, have been heard, accounting for 53.7 percent of all the administrative cases.

"The city's courts should give full play to the role of administrative adjudication, continue to promote the resolution of administrative disputes, and provide justice service for the construction of legal government and local residents," Zhang Bin, the deputy head of the court, said at the conference.