Shanghai judicial bureau fulfills duty in video court hearing

With the help of a video communication system, an online court hearing was recently presented in the Shanghai No.3 Intermediate People's Court, with the city's judicial bureau acting as the agent of the local ecological and environmental bureau, the respondent in the case.

As part of the epidemic control effort of China's judicial system, the adoption of the video technology enabled all the participants of this lawsuit to take part in the court hearing from their respective locations rather than gather in a courtroom as they normally would.

Shortly before the hearing, the judicial bureau made it clear in a notice concerning administrative reconsideration cases that administrative organs must cooperate with courts in holding video hearings upon request of the courts.

The hearing, which focused on an administrative penalty imposed by the ecological and environmental bureau on an enterprise (the appellant), was originally scheduled for Feb 11, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Thanks to the technical support of the judicial bureau, which is determined to fulfill its duty of judicial supervision despite the epidemic, the hearing was eventually held on Feb 13 via a remote video communication system.

With the withdrawal of the appeal by the appellant enterprise after it fully realized the importance of environmental protection, the hearing substantially resolved the dispute.