We have recently adopted video collegial communication across countries to hear a major complicated case. This has effectively improved the quality and efficiency of our case hearing.

The case concerned a dispute in relation to a land reclamation project contract and involved a subject matter valuing CNY 270 million including claims and counterclaims. It was complicated and involved a significant subject matter, creating 24 volumes of files consisting of thousands of pages. The pre-trial meeting and court hearings had taken as long as 6 days, and then Chen Qiyou, people’s accessor and member of the collegial bench for the case, was held up on a business trip in Germany and other regions. It might have significantly prolonged the trial either to replace a collegial bench member or to wait till he returned to the country. With either option, the lawful rights and interests of the parties concerned might have been impaired. To make sure that the case proceeded according to the collegial procedures and to fully exert the role of people’s accessors in the hearing, we eventually decided to conduct a collegial meeting with the people’s accessor abroad via remote video communication. The collegial meeting started at 16:00pm (9am local time) on 22 December 2016, and lasted for over 2 hours. With the equipment running normally and the video and audio signals consistent and clear, the members fully listened to and expressed each other’s views, leaving detailed records. The case has now proceeded to further hearings.