周强：坚持司法为民公正司法　努力维护社会公平正义

中文版：坚持司法为民公正司法努力维护社会公平正义.doc

英文版：Safeguarding Social Equity and Justice Through the Work of People’s Courts.doc

坚持司法为民公正司法　努力维护社会公平正义

Safeguarding Social Equity and Justice Through the Work of People’s Courts

 

周强

Zhou Qiang

 

在中央政法工作会议上，习近平总书记发表重要讲话，从全局和战略高度，深刻阐述了事关政法工作全局和长远发展的重大问题，提出一系列新思想、新观点、新要求。这一重要讲话，对于更好地坚持和完善中国特色社会主义司法制度，深入推进平安中国、法治中国建设，具有十分重大而深远的指导意义，为做好新形势下人民法院工作指明了方向。

 

On January 7, 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the Conference of the CPC Central Committee on Judicial, Procuratorial, and Public Security Work. During his speech, Xi Jinping expounded on several key points pertaining to the overall situation and long-term development of judicial, procuratorial, and public security work, and set forth a series of new ideas, viewpoints, and requirements from an overall strategic perspective.

 

一、准确理解把握社会公平正义的深刻内涵和基本要求

I. Accurately understanding the profound connotations and basic requirements of social equity and justice

 

习近平总书记明确指出，公平正义是政法工作的生命线，促进社会公平正义是政法工作的核心价值追求；要求政法战线以实际行动维护社会公平正义，让人民群众切实感受到公平正义就在身边；要求重点解决好损害群众权益的突出问题，决不允许对群众的报警求助置之不理，决不允许让普通群众打不起官司，决不允许滥用权力侵犯群众合法权益，决不允许执法犯法造成冤假错案。人民法院只有准确理解和把握公平正义的深刻内涵和基本要求，才能切实承担起维护社会公平正义最后一道防线的职责使命。

 

In his speech, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that equity and justice represent the lifelines of judicial, procuratorial, and public security work, while promoting social equity and justice constitutes the core value that must be pursued in our initiatives in this regard. He called upon those engaged in judicial, procuratorial, and public security work to make concrete efforts to safeguard social equity and justice so that the people can genuinely feel the presence of equity and justice in their everyday lives. In addition, Xi Jinping also called for particular emphasis to be placed on the resolution of serious problems that harm people’s rights and interests, thereby ensuring that we never fail to respond when people call the police for help, never allow litigation to become unaffordable for ordinary people, never allow people’s legitimate rights and interests to be violated due to the abuse of power, and never allow miscarriages of justice to occur as a result of unlawful practices in law enforcement. In the case of people’s courts, it is clear that only with an accurate understanding of the profound connotations and basic requirements of equity and justice will we truly be able to fulfill our duty and mission as the last line of defense for social equity and justice.

 

公平正义是人类社会孜孜以求的理想和目标，是社会文明进步的重要标志。我国是人民民主专政的社会主义国家，公平正义是中国特色社会主义的内在要求，自由、平等、公正、法治体现了社会主义核心价值观在价值选择上的导向。我们党始终把实现社会公平正义作为重要使命，在中国革命、建设、改革各个历史时期都进行了不懈探索。特别是党的十八大将维护社会公平正义作为新的历史条件下夺取中国特色社会主义新胜利必须牢牢把握的基本要求，强调要逐步建立以权利公平、机会公平、规则公平为主要内容的社会公平保障体系，努力营造公平的社会环境，保证人民平等参与、平等发展权利。党的十八届三中全会把促进社会公平正义、增进人民福祉作为全面深化改革的出发点和落脚点，进一步明确了中国特色社会主义所追求的公平正义的深刻内涵，丰富和发展了马克思主义公平正义观，为我们更好地促进社会公平正义提供了理论指引。

 

As important symbols of social civilization and progress, equity and justice have long been pursued as ideals and goals of human society. Equity and justice also represent inherent requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics, with principles such as freedom, equality, justice, and the rule of law reflecting the chosen orientation of our core socialist values. The CPC has always regarded the realization of social equity and justice as one of its important missions, having engaged in unremitting explorations in this regard throughout the course of China’s revolution, development and reform. In particular, the report to the Eighteenth National Congress of the CPC emphasized that we must gradually establish a system for guaranteeing fairness in society that features, among other things, equal rights, equal opportunities, and fair rules for all; work hard to foster a fair social environment; and safeguard people’s right to participate in governance and develop as equals. In addition, the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee has identified promoting social equity and justice and improving public wellbeing as the fundamental purpose of our efforts to comprehensively promote reform. In doing so, this plenary session has further clarified the profound connotations of the equity and justice that we are seeking to achieve under socialism with Chinese characteristics, and further enriched and developed the Marxist outlook on equity and justice, thereby providing us with stronger theoretical guidance as we go about promoting social equity and justice.

 

司法权是重要的国家权力，在促进社会公平正义中发挥着不可替代的重要作用。对人民法院来讲，实现公平正义，就是要让当事人平等地行使权利、平等地履行义务、平等地参与诉讼、平等地受到尊重；就是要让有理无钱的人打得起官司、让有理有据的人打得赢官司、让打赢官司的当事人及时实现权益、让确有错误的裁判依法得到纠正。

 

As an important constituent of state power, judicial powers have an irreplaceable role to play in promoting social equity and justice. For people’s courts, realizing equity and justice means ensuring that litigants are able to exercise their rights, fulfill their obligations, engage in lawsuits, and receive the respect they deserve in an equal manner. It means ensuring that people who have good reason to take legal action but little money to do so can afford the cost of litigation; that people who present well-argued cases are able to win their lawsuits; that litigants who have won their lawsuits can fulfill their rights and interests promptly after a ruling has been made; and that erroneous court rulings can be rectified in accordance with the law.

 

人民法院促进社会公平正义，必须始终坚持法律面前人人平等，对于一切公民，不分民族、种族、性别、职业、社会出身、宗教信仰、教育程度、财产状况、居住期限，在适用法律上一律平等，不允许有任何特权。必须依法公正对待人民群众的诉求，紧紧围绕“让人民群众在每一个司法案件中都感受到公平正义”这个目标，牢牢把握司法为民、公正司法这条主线，坚决落实“四个决不允许”的要求，确保受到侵害的权利一定会得到保护和救济，违法犯罪活动一定会受到制裁和惩罚。必须加强人权司法保障，严格落实罪刑法定、疑罪从无、证据裁判、公开审判等司法理念和原则，坚决防止和纠正冤假错案，维护人民群众对法治建设的信心。必须维护宪法法律权威，坚决反对以言代法、以权压法、徇私枉法，依法惩治违法犯罪行为，增强全民法治观念，为改革发展稳定营造良好法治环境。

 

In promoting social equity and justice, people’s courts must ensure that everybody is treated equally before the law. This means that people’s courts are obliged to apply the law equally to all citizens, regardless of ethnicity, race, sex, occupation, social origin, religious belief, level of education, property ownership status, or length of residence, so as to ensure that nobody enjoys special treatment. People’s courts must treat people’s demands impartially on the basis of the law. In line with the goal of ensuring that fairness and justice can be felt in every single case, people’s courts need to adhere to the core principles of administering justice impartially and for the benefit of the people, ensure that protection and remedy are afforded wherever rights have been infringed, and make sure that punishment is dealt out wherever illegal and criminal activities are found. People’s courts must provide stronger judicial protection of human rights. By stringently adhering to judicial principles such as no penalty without a law, innocent until proven guilty, evidentiary adjudication, and open hearings, people’s courts need to engage in resolute efforts to prevent and rectify miscarriages of justice, thereby maintaining public confidence in our efforts to promote the rule of law. In addition, people’s courts must safeguard the authority of the Constitution and laws. In this regard, people’s courts must act resolutely to prevent those in a position of power from taking their own words as the law, placing their own authority above the law, or perverting the law for personal gain. Through their efforts to punish illegal and criminal activities in accordance with the law, we should work to raise public awareness of the rule of law and promote the creation of a sound legal environment that is conducive to China’s reform, development, and stability.

 

二、牢牢坚持党的领导

II. Firmly upholding the leadership of the Party

 

习近平总书记强调，政法战线要旗帜鲜明坚持党的领导，自觉在思想上政治上行动上同党中央保持高度一致。强调要从理论和实践上解决好正确处理党的政策和国家法律的关系、正确处理坚持党的领导和确保司法机关依法独立公正行使职权的关系两个重大问题。这对于人民法院始终坚持正确政治方向，坚持党的领导、人民当家作主、依法治国有机统一，具有十分重大的意义。

 

During his speech at the Conference of the CPC Central Committee on Judicial, Procuratorial, and Public Security Work, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need for unequivocal adherence to the leadership of the Party in judicial, procuratorial, and public security work, stating that those engaged in this area of work must consciously maintain a high degree of unity with the CPC Central Committee ideologically, politically, and in their actions. Xi Jinping also emphasized the need for two major issues in judicial, procuratorial, and public security work to be resolved from the perspective of both theory and practice. These are the issue of correctly balancing the relationship between Party policies and national laws; and the issue of finding the correct balance between upholding the leadership of the Party and ensuring the law-based, independent, and impartial exercise of power by judicial organs. These requirements will have a significant role to play in ensuring that people’s courts maintain the correct political orientation and continue to uphold the close unity that exists between the leadership of the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country, and the rule of law.

 

坚持党的领导，是人民法院推进公正司法的根本政治保证和巨大政治优势。在坚持党对人民法院工作领导这样的大是大非面前，各级法院必须保持高度的政治清醒和政治自觉，始终在思想上政治上行动上同以习近平同志为总书记的党中央保持高度一致，不能有丝毫动摇。必须始终高举中国特色社会主义伟大旗帜，牢固树立中国特色社会主义道路自信、理论自信、制度自信。必须把全部工作放在提高党的执政能力、巩固党的执政地位、履行党的执政使命的高度去谋划、去思考，自觉坚持党的基本理论、基本路线、基本纲领、基本经验，坚决维护中央权威。必须正确处理党的政策和国家法律的关系，保障党的路线方针政策在法院系统得到不折不扣的贯彻落实，保障宪法法律统一正确实施。必须正确处理坚持党的领导和确保依法独立公正行使审判权的关系，坚决落实中央各项重大决策，将及时传达学习贯彻中央重要会议和习近平总书记重要讲话精神作为一项重要工作制度，健全重大事项向党委报告等制度，紧紧依靠党的领导解决制约人民法院工作发展的体制性、机制性和保障性问题，确保人民法院工作正确方向。

 

The leadership of the Party represents a fundamental political safeguard and an enormous political advantage that people’s courts enjoy as they work to promote the impartial administration of justice. With regard to upholding the leadership of the Party in the work of people’s courts, which constitutes a major issue of principle, people’s courts at all levels must maintain a high level of political clarity and consciousness, and continue with unwavering will to maintain a high degree of unity with the CPC Central Committee—with Xi Jinping as General Secretary—ideologically, politically, and in their actions. In order to achieve this, we must balance the relationship between Party policies and national laws. This means ensuring that the Party’s line, principles, and policies are fully implemented in courts at all levels, and ensuring that the Constitution and laws are implemented uniformly and correctly.  At the same time, we must also maintain the right balance between upholding the leadership of the Party and guaranteeing the law-based, independent, and impartial exercise of judicial power. We need to resolutely implement all major policy decisions of the CPC Central Committee, establish a work system to promptly convey, study, and implement the guiding principles of important CPC Central Committee meetings and important speeches by General Secretary Xi Jinping, and improve institutions for reporting to Party committees on major matters. By relying closely on the leadership of the Party, we need to address problems in our systems, institutions, and safeguards that are constraining the work of people’s courts, and ensure that the work of people’s courts can progress in the right direction.

 

三、更加注重坚持司法为民

III. Laying greater emphasis on administering justice for people’s benefit

 

习近平总书记指出，政法工作做得怎么样，直接关系广大人民群众切身利益。政法工作搞得好不好，最终要看是否有利于人民安居乐业。要求政法机关和广大干警把人民群众的事当作自己的事，把人民群众的小事当作自己的大事，从让人民群众满意的事情做起，从人民群众不满意的问题改起，为人民群众安居乐业提供有力法律保障。这为人民法院践行司法为民宗旨提出了新的更高要求。

 

In his speech, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the quality of our judicial, procuratorial, and public security work has a direct bearing on the immediate interests of the people, and that the merit of these initiatives ultimately depends on how conducive they are to guaranteeing that the people can live and work in peace and contentment. On that basis, he called on judicial, procuratorial, and public security organs and their personnel to regard the people’s affairs as their own affairs, view people’s everyday needs as matters of great importance, set out to accomplish the things that bring public satisfaction, and rectify matters that are a cause of public dissatisfaction, so as to provide a strong legal guarantee to ensure that people can live and work in peace and contentment. These statements translate into new and more demanding requirements with regard to how people’s courts go about implementing the principle of administering justice for people’s benefit.

 

人民法院坚持司法为民、公正司法，从根本上讲就是为了解决好人民群众最关心最直接最现实的利益问题。人民法院必须牢牢把握维护社会大局稳定的基本任务，妥善解决群众合理合法诉求，正确处理维稳和维权的关系，依法推进社会治理，认真做好涉诉信访工作，加大司法救助力度，着力解决人民群众反映强烈的“门难进、脸难看、事难办”和“立案难、诉讼难、执行难”等问题，使群众由衷感到权益受到了公平对待、利益得到了有效维护。必须牢牢把握保障人民安居乐业的根本目标，深入推进平安中国建设，依法打击犯罪、保护人民，特别是严厉打击危害国家安全、煽动民族分裂以及暴力恐怖犯罪，危害食品药品安全、利用信息网络实施诽谤、性侵未成年人、公共安全事故、环境污染等为群众所深恶痛绝的犯罪，维护国家长治久安，保障人民生命财产安全。必须依法为全面深化改革提供有力司法保障，坚持围绕中心、服务大局，妥善审理涉及经济、政治、文化、社会和生态文明体制改革进程中发生的各类案件，确保改革成果更多更公平惠及全体人民。

 

Fundamentally speaking, the efforts of people’s courts to administer justice impartially and for people’s benefit are aimed at resolving the problems that people are concerned about the most and that affect them most directly in real life. With a firm commitment to the basic task of safeguarding overall social stability, people’s courts must work to appropriately resolve the reasonable and legitimate demands of the people, balance the relationship between safeguarding social stability and protecting people’s rights, and promote social governance in accordance with the law. To do this, people’s courts must conscientiously address petitions pertaining to litigation, enhance the legal aid they provide, and lay emphasis on resolving problems in their own operation that are the cause of strong public dissatisfaction, such as inaccessibility, unfriendliness, and slackness in the performance of duties, and also the difficulty that members of the public experience in having their cases established, having their lawsuits filed, and having their court rulings enforced. Through these efforts, people’s courts will be able to ensure that the people truly feel that their rights have been fairly treated and that their interests have been effectively safeguarded. Adhering to the fundamental goal of guaranteeing that the people can live and work in peace and contentment, people’s courts must promote the development of a peaceful China, and combat crime in accordance with the law in an effort to protect the people. In particular, people’s courts must crack down on crimes that jeopardize national security, incite ethnic separatism, and involve violent terrorist activities, as well as criminal activities that people abhor, such as those involving defamation on the Internet, the sexual abuse of minors, threats to food and drug safety, public safety incidents, and environmental pollution. Through these efforts, they will help to promote lasting national peace and stability and safeguard people’s safety and property. In a bid to lawfully provide a strong judicial guarantee for the comprehensive deepening of reform, people’s courts must continue to work towards core tasks, serve overall interests, and appropriately handle various cases that emerge during the course of China’s economic, political, cultural, and social reforms, as well as reforms pertaining to ecological progress, so as to ensure that all people can benefit more fairly and more thoroughly from the fruits of development.

 

四、坚持依法独立公正行使审判权

IV. Ensuring the law-based, independent, and impartial exercise of judicial power

 

习近平总书记指出，政法机关要完成党和人民赋予的光荣使命，必须严格执法、公正司法。强调要扭住职业良知、坚守法治、制度约束、公开运行等环节，坚持不懈、持之以恒地抓。提出要深化司法体制改革，从确保依法独立公正行使审判权、健全司法权力运行机制、完善人权司法保障制度三个方面，着力解决影响司法公正、制约司法能力的深层次问题。这充分体现了以习近平同志为总书记的党中央对加强公正司法的高度重视。

 

In his speech, General Secretary Xi Jinping stated that judicial, procuratorial, and public security organs must strictly enforce the law and impartially administer justice in order to fulfill the glorious mission that has been entrusted to them by the Party and the people. He emphasized that we must maintain a long-term commitment to improving our professional conscience, to upholding the rule of law, to strengthening institutional regulation, and to performing duties in an open manner. In addition, he also called for the deepening of judicial reform, which should involve three-pronged efforts to ensure the law-based, independent, and impartial exercise of judicial power, to enhance mechanisms for the exercise of judicial power, and to improve judicial systems for the safeguarding of human rights, with a view to addressing the deep-seated problems that are hindering the impartial administration of justice and constraining judicial competence. These statements fully demonstrate the high level of priority that the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as General Secretary has attached to enhancing the impartial administration of justice.

 

公正司法是人民法院工作的生命线。实现“让人民群众在每一个司法案件中都感受到公平正义”这个目标，人民法院面临的挑战很多、任务很重，必须以更大的决心和勇气，严格执法办案，落实好习近平总书记对公正司法提出的新要求。要加强司法良知和职业道德教育，将司法不公不廉作为最大耻辱，做到对群众深恶痛绝的事零容忍、对群众急需急盼的事零懈怠。要信仰法治、坚守法治，把法治精神当作主心骨，在具体案件的审判上，只服从事实，只服从法律，真正做到不偏不倚，不枉不纵，铁面无私，秉公执法。要加强公正司法制度保障，坚持以庭审为中心，完善审判管理机制，规范司法行为，健全错案防止、纠正、责任追究机制，落实办案质量终身负责制，在审判环节坚决守住防范冤假错案的底线。要坚定不移深化司法公开，继续加大对复杂敏感案件的公开力度，全面推进审判流程公开、裁判文书公开、执行信息公开三大平台建设，充分运用电视、报刊、网站、微博、微信、新闻客户端等全媒体，加大司法公开和新闻宣传力度，以公开促公正，以透明保廉洁。要深入推进司法体制改革，紧紧围绕“加快建设公正高效权威的社会主义司法制度”，按照中央统一部署，坚持依法有序推进改革，进一步激发人民法院工作活力，推动中国特色社会主义司法制度自我完善和发展。

 

The impartial administration of justice represents the lifeline for the work of people’s courts. In order to fulfill the goal of ensuring that fairness and justice can be felt in every single case, people’s courts must strictly enforce the law, handle cases with greater determination and courage, and implement the new requirements that General Secretary Xi Jinping has set forth regarding the impartial administration of justice. To achieve this, we should further educate judicial personnel with regard to judicial conscience and professional ethics, urge them to regard the biased and illegitimate administration of justice as the greatest disgrace, and see to it that they show zero tolerance for things the people abhor and never slacken in their efforts to accomplish what people urgently need or desire. We need to have faith in the rule of law, adhere to the rule of law, and regard the spirit of the rule of law as an underlying principle. In the handling of specific cases, we should act solely on the basis of fact and law, strive to be genuinely impartial and incorruptible, and make sure that we never wrong an innocent person or let a criminal go unpunished. In a bid to underpin the impartial administration of justice with stronger institutional guarantees, we should continue to maintain the central role of courtroom hearings, improve mechanisms for managing court cases, standardize judicial actions, and strengthen mechanisms for preventing and rectifying erroneous rulings and for holding those responsible for such rulings to account. At the same time, we should also adopt a lifelong accountability system to guarantee that cases are handled to high standards of quality, thus making court trials a solid line of defense against miscarriages of justice. With a firm commitment to deepening judicial openness, we should continue to increase the openness of complicated and sensitive cases, and promote the comprehensive development of major platforms for making court procedures, court rulings, and details on the enforcement of court rulings known to the public. By making full use of various forms of media including television, newspapers, websites, microblogs, WeChat, and news applications, we will enhance judicial openness and publicity in an effort to promote justice through openness and preserve integrity through transparency. Moreover, we also need to promote deeper judicial reform. Focusing on the goal of accelerating the development of an impartial, highly efficient, and authoritative socialist judicial system, and proceeding in line with the unified planning of the CPC Central Committee, we will continue to promote law-based reform in an orderly manner, inject new vitality into the work of people’s courts, and promote the self-improvement and development of a socialist judicial system with Chinese characteristics.

 

五、努力建设一支过硬的人民法院队伍

 

习近平总书记指出，实施依法治国基本方略，建设社会主义法治国家，必须有一支高素质队伍。要按照政治过硬、业务过硬、责任过硬、纪律过硬、作风过硬的要求，努力建设一支信念坚定、执法为民、敢于担当、清正廉洁的政法队伍。这对人民法院加强队伍建设提出了殷切期望。

 

坚持司法为民，实现公正司法，关键在队伍。当前人民法院队伍的主流是好的，广大法院干警面对繁重艰巨的审判任务，面对纷繁复杂的矛盾纠纷，忠实履行宪法法律赋予的职责，为推动法治建设作出积极贡献。但同时也要清醒认识到，极少数干警司法不公、作风不正、司法腐败等违纪违法现象仍时有发生，暴露出法院工作和队伍管理中还存在不少问题。人民法院必须发扬“钉钉子”精神，抓铁有痕、踏石留印，不断加强队伍建设。要把理想信念教育摆在队伍建设第一位，永葆法院队伍忠于党、忠于国家、忠于人民、忠于法律的政治本色。加强纪律教育，特别是严明党的组织纪律，健全完善请示报告制度，加强组织管理，坚决整治庸懒散奢之风，以铁的纪律带出一支铁的队伍。积极推进人民法院队伍正规化、专业化、职业化建设，探索建立符合法院工作特点的人员管理制度，加强履职能力培训，推动完善符合司法人员职业特点的工作保障措施，认真落实从优待警的政策规定。特别是要加强人民法院党风廉政建设和反腐败工作，以刮骨疗毒、壮士断腕的勇气，以零容忍态度坚决惩治腐败，重点解决关系案、人情案、金钱案问题，加强案件查处工作，切实做到发现一起、查处一起，坚决清除队伍中的害群之马。要紧紧扭住法院系统司法腐败典型案件，教育警示广大干警，自觉接受社会各界监督，彰显人民法院反腐败的决心。要持之以恒落实中央八项规定精神，不断巩固和扩大党的群众路线教育实践活动成果，坚持不懈纠正“四风”问题，树立良好司法形象，让群众真切感受到人民法院的新作风新气象。

 

[注：本部分无英文译文]

（作者：最高人民法院党组书记、院长、首席大法官）

 

(Author: President of the Supreme People’s Court and Chief Justice of the People’s Republic of China)