Chief Justice and president of the Supreme People's Court Zhou Qiang and Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court President Ramiz Rzayev signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between their top courts at a meeting in Beijing on March 16.

Zhou Qiang (right), president of China’s Supreme People’s Court, and Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court President Ramiz Rzayev shake hands at a meeting in Beijing, on March 16. [Photo by Sun Ruofeng]

Zhou extended his welcome to Ramiz Rzayev and introduced China’s progress in implementing the rule of law and enhancing its court system. He said that China attaches great importance to the rule of law, which is a basic component of the Communist Party of China’s leadership of the people in governing the country.

The 18th National Congress of the Party established the goal of comprehensively advancing law-based governance of China and accelerating the construction of a Socialist rule of law country in 2012. The fourth plenary of the 18th National Congress of the Party discussed the issue and set out steps towards the goal, marking a new historical phase for the campaign, Zhou noted.

Chinese courts are committed to the goal of “letting the people feel fairness and justice in every single case” and adhere to the principles of administering justice for the people and enhancing judicial process to maintain social stability and equality, ensuring that the people live and work in peace and contentment.

Chinese courts are deepening judicial reform to remove the institutional barriers to the justice system so as to better meet the people’s increasing and diverse demands for judicial services, Zhou said.

The SPC put forward 65 reform tasks, which cover a wide range of aspects such as the operational mechanisms of judicial power, the jurisdiction system, and development of a categorized management structure for judicial personnel. The reform has born some early fruits - the case-filing registration system has basically solved the difficulty of filing a lawsuit, and other measures have also been successfully carried out, the SPC president said.

He told his Azerbaijani counterpart that the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress, which concluded on March 16, had approved the Government Work Report, the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) and the SPC’s work report, enabling the SPC to give full judicial support for the building of a moderately well-off society.

Zhou expressed his hope that courts in the two countries will enhance exchange and cooperation and protect the legitimate rights and interests of companies and personnel to facilitate construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. He looked forward to more cooperation on judicial reform, informationization construction and case analysis with Azerbaijan under the framework of the MOU, and hoped to contribute to the friendly relationship between the two countries.

Ramiz Rzayev introduced the progress of Azerbaijan’s rule of law and work of courts in his country and appreciated Chinese courts’ achievements on informationization construction. He said his court will work to improve judicial communication and exchange as well as further boost China-Azerbaijan relations.

Du Wanhua, member of the judicial committee with the top court, also attended the meeting.