From 4th until 10th of May 2019 a delegation of ten judges from the Federal State of Hessen visited the Chinese provinces Zhejiang and Anhui, as part of an ongoing exchange between the judiciary of Hessen and those two Chinese provinces. Core of the visit were discussions and workshops with Chinese colleagues from the Higher, Intermediate and Lower People’s Courts. The delegation choose to focus the discussion on the requirements of a due process in three different areas; due process and mass claims, due process and equipment of the court – encompassing both human resources policy and digitalization – and due process and the statutes of judges.
The delegation started its journey in the Zhejiang Province, where they paid a visit to the Intermediate People’s Court in Hangzhou. During the following workshop the participants talked about mass claims and the challenges these pose for legal proceedings. In the afternoon in a workshop at the Higher People’s Court of Zhejiang, the discussion focused on human resource policies in the courts, with an emphasis on the judiciary. The next day the delegation visited a criminal court session at the Lower People’s Court. In the following discussion differences between criminal cases in both countries were discussed. The last two days of the week were spent in Anhui Province, where the delegation discussed statutes of judges at the Middle People’s Court and about digitalization at the Higher People’s Court. A demonstration on the current state of digitalization in China was provided throughout the week, when the delegation visited amongst others a court room equipped for online court sessions.