The court is open at home, and law-based governance brings vitality to basic governance in Changning District of Shanghai
“Sometimes, after the neighborhood committee resolves a conflict, it erupts again in two days. I really hope that the judicial authorities can come to our place more often. The results of their judgments are widely accepted and trusted by everyone.” Xu Ziyi, the director of Wuyi Neighborhood Committee in Shanghai Changning District, said when facing the daily conflicts and disputes within the community.
At the “nerve endings” of the city, community committees are always handling the intricate and nuanced conflicts between neighbors. Human emotions are often a common means, but “legal awareness” must be strengthened. According to the joint deployment of the Municipal Social Work Department and the Municipal High Court, starting from August 2024, the Changning District Social Work Department and the District Court will work together to promote community court trials to empower grassroots governance in all 10街道镇 throughout the district. They also issued the “Rainbow Bridge” Legal Work Station’s guidance on performing the function of circuit trials, solidly reducing the burden on and enhancing the capabilities of grassroots communities.
A court in front of our house
On September 27th, 2024, a special trial was held in the Party-Mass Service Center of Zhoujiaqiao Street in Changning District. By relying on the “circuit trial” mechanism, the court was “brought” to the doorstep, and a case of “throwing objects from high altitude” that occurred in the community was openly tried.
The plaintiff in the case was a resident on the first floor of a high-rise building. The lawsuit stated that since moving into the community in 2022, the plaintiff had repeatedly found residents upstairs throwing cigarette butts, water, and garbage downstairs. On April 19th, 2024, a vase thrown from upstairs hit and damaged a pavilion in the plaintiff’s garden without causing any personal injury or death. After reporting the case to the police station, no specific抛物单位 could be identified. The plaintiff filed a lawsuit against all 51 possible households upstairs and the property management company to jointly bear the liability for compensation.
After accepting the case, a judge from Changning People’s Court immediately judged that a “circuit trial” should be conducted and tried it in front of residents. Because there were many defendants in this case who were all residents in the same community, and throwing objects from high altitudes is a typical contradiction at grassroots level, “circuit trials” could have a good demonstration effect and legal publicity effect as well as play a leading role.
In the end, at the trial scene, the defendant representatives promised to stop throwing objects from high altitudes in the future, and both sides reached a settlement. After the trial, community resident representatives, residential property management committee representatives, and property companies representatives jointly signed the “Wuyi Garden Civilization Agreement” on that day to promise to abide by its contents and build a beautiful home together. In addition to “strictly prohibited from throwing objects from high altitudes,” it also includes items such as “civilized pet ownership” and “no stacking in hallways.”
In fact, holding a “circuit trial” requires more preliminary work than holding a court session in a court, such as site selection and delivery of litigation materials, which requires coordination between courts and neighborhood committees. Despite this, this mechanism has an irreplaceable legal publicity effect at grassroots level.
“Circuit trials are great real-time and on-the-spot judicial openness.” Judge Fu Yan said that circuit trials allow courts to better respond to people’s concerns and improve residents’ legal awareness through close public trials of typical cases related to daily life. When encountering similar problems in the future, disputes can be resolved before entering legal procedures.
Rule of law enables grassroots governance
The leader of the building involved in the case also attended the trial as an observer. She said: “It feels like the court has lowered its posture, reaching out to people on the front lines instead of being aloof.”
From community judge offices to “Rainbow Bridge” legal workstations and then to the full promotion of “circuit trial” mechanisms, Changning District’s grassroots legal work has been continuously upgraded to reduce burdens and enhance capabilities at grassroots level. The decentralization of judicial power is undoubtedly a two-way collaboration between courts and grassroots neighborhood committees. On one hand, courts can better carry out legal publicity work; on the other hand, neighborhood committees can reduce potential hidden risks during conflict mediation and avoid complications caused by repeated issues.
Xu Ziyi said that when carrying out conflict mediation or legal-related work at grassroots level, lawyers already play a strong professional role, while police involvement indicates that things have already gone too far. Now, small issues resolved through circuit trials effectively enhance residents’ legal awareness and give them a stronger sense of responsibility for issues such as throwing objects from high altitudes. In Xu Ziyi’s view, one “circuit trial” has an irreplaceable effect, reducing the burden of repeated dispute
