I. Introduction

On August 18, 2017, China’s first Internet Court was established in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. By the end of August 2018, the Hangzhou Internet Court had accepted and heard 12,103 Internet cases and concluded 10,646 cases. An online trial process takes only 28 minutes on average and the average trial period is 41 days, saving 60% of the time compared with the traditional trial procedure. In the past year, the Hangzhou Internet Court created a successful model that can be replicated and promoted across China. In this regard, the Beijing Internet Court and the Guangzhou Internet Court were subsequently established on September 9, 2018 and September 28, 2018, respectively.

In order to regulate the litigation system of the three Internet Courts in China and protect the legitimate rights of the parties and other participants during the litigation process, on September 3, 2018, the Supreme People’s Court Judicial Committee issued the “Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Hearing of Cases by Internet Courts” (hereinafter referred to as the “Provisions”).

The Provisions covers a broad range of matters in connection with the jurisdiction of the Internet Courts, the appeal mechanism, and the requirements for the construction of the Internet litigation platforms. It also clarifies the online litigation procedural rules including identity authentication, case filing, response to lawsuits, evidence exchange, trial proceedings, delivery, signature, and archiving, with an aim to promoting the rule of law in cyberspace governance.