China issues judicial interpretation to ensure administrative organs fulfill promises

BEIJING - China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Dec 10 released a judicial interpretation on the trial of cases about administrative agreements, aiming to better protect people's rights and interests in cases that involve administrative organs.

The interpretation also aims to ensure that administrative organs fulfill their promises in agreements with citizens, legal persons or other organizations for achieving administrative or public service objectives, said Huang Yongwei, head of the SPC's administrative trial division, at a press conference.

According to the interpretation, courts around the country should handle administrative litigations filed by citizens, legal persons or other organizations on administrative agreements that concern land and housing expropriation and requisition, the rental or transaction of government-subsidized housing, among others.

However, the courts will not accept counter-litigation cases filed by administrative organs, the interpretation ruled.

The interpretation will also help ensure that administrative organs seriously fulfill their contracts with investors during various cooperation processes, Huang said.

The interpretation will take effect on Jan 1, 2020. Administrative agreements signed after May 1, 2015 will fall into the jurisdiction of the interpretation, while agreements signed before that date will be ruled by the laws and judicial interpretations at the time.