Since its establishment in September 2018, the Beijing Internet Court (BIC) has explored a new model of whole-process online litigation based on its functional role, blazed a trail of integrated development of information technology and judicial trials, established new rules for judicial governance in cyberspace, and continuously written new chapters in internet justice, Beijing Daily reported. 

Tapping the rule-guiding role of judicial judgment

By the end of July 2023, the BIC had received 194,000 cases, with 182,000 of them concluded. The majority of cases  heard by the BIC mainly concerned copyright ownership, infringement disputes, online infringement liability disputes, and information network sales contract disputes. 

The BIC has heard a large number of internet-related cases with gap-filling, rule-setting and demonstration significance. Through trial practice, it has created four major adjudication rule databases for intellectual property, civil, commercial, and procedural cases. Building upon this foundation, it has developed seven major adjudication rule systems, continuously intensifying innovation protection efforts, strengthening protection of consumers' rights and interests, leading the healthy development of the digital economy, and improving the level of cyberspace civilization. 

Since its establishment, the BIC has had seven cases included in the Supreme People's Court(SPC)'s work reports during the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. A total of 19 cases were included in the SPC's top 10 guiding cases, and three included as reference cases for courts in Beijing. 

Providing highly-efficient and convenient internet-related judicial services

With the adoption of a whole-process e-litigation platform, the BIC has achieved 100 percent in online case-filing, 93.5 percent in the online submission of litigation fees, and 99.9 percent in online case hearing. 

A combination of smart litigation services and technologies has achieved 100 percent accuracy in case-related fee payments, with the fee delivery time  having been significantly shortened.

The launch of Tianping Blockchain, China's first court-led blockchain electronic evidence platform, resolved the pain points in online evidence collection which are hard-to-deposit, easy-to-falsify and hard-to-testify.

At present, Tianping Blockchain has been connected to 25 application units, with  over 200 million pieces of electronic data on the chain, and 34,100 pieces of cross-chain verified electronic data, involving 7,554 cases.

In response to the high occurrence of copyright cases, the BIC launched the Tianping Blockchain-Copyright Chain co-governance platform, forming the “E-copyright” litigation-source co-governance model, with which the number of filing copyright cases in 2022 dropped 48 percent, an indication of the effective resolution of disputes at the source.

The BIC has sent a total of 23 judicial suggestions to relevant administrative organs, industrial associations and online platform companies. The response rate from administrative organs was 100 percent, covering such areas as platform supervision loopholes, the online surfing mechanism for minors, illegal online industries, and the litigation-source governance for bulk cases.

To safeguard the capital's high-quality development in the digital economy, the BIC has released multiple judicial documents in a bid to optimize judicial supply in the digital era.

"The BIC will persist in serving the overall situation, deliver justice for the people, actively respond to the new needs of justice in the digital era, continue to promote the rule of law in cyberspace governance, constantly strengthen China's power in international discourse and rule-making, and strive to build a world-leading internet judicial model with Chinese characteristics, as well as promote the modernization of trial work," said Jiang Ying, president of the BIC.