Judicial offices

II. Historical Evolution of Judicial Offices

In the early days of the People's Republic of China, many towns (sub-districts) had judicial assistants who were mainly responsible for the organization and management of people's mediation.

At the beginning of 1980s, the tasks of maintaining social stability and implementing administration according to law were getting increasingly arduous. Therefore, some judicial administrative authorities in coastal areas, with judicial assistants as the backbone, established judicial rooms (also called legal service offices) in towns, which were later transformed into judicial justice offices.

In 1998, based on the "Plan of Three Determinations ", the State Council launched the institutional reform, entrusting the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) with the power to guide local judicial administrative authorities and to manage judicial offices.

In accordance with the unified arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the MOJ conscientiously implemented the construction plan of town-level judicial office in central and western China.

From the beginning of 2004 to the end of 2015, in the central and western regions, about 30,000 town-level judicial offices with no building or dangerous building had been built or rebuilt, with a total area of 3,928,000 square meters and an average of 134.1 square meters for each judicial office.

After years of construction and development, the total number of judicial offices in China has exceeded 40,000, with more than 12,000 staff members. The judicial offices, with strengthened functions, has standardized their work, thus playing an even increasingly important role.