On May 7, 2024, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the Working Procedures for the Construction and Operation of the People’s Court Case Database (人民法院案例库建设运行工作规程). While China is not a common law country, the SPC stated that judges must search the database and rule in alignment with similar cases in the database to avoid different rulings in cases having the same facts.  The Working Procedures explain how cases are added to the database and how judges should use the database when making rulings.  Excerpts follow.

Article 4   The reference cases included in the case database of the People’s Court shall be cases whose judgments have become legally effective and have reference and demonstration value for the trial of similar cases.

Generally, no more than two reference cases will be included on the same specific legal application issue.

Article 19   When hearing a case, the people’s courts at all levels shall search the case database of the people’s court, strictly follow the laws, judicial interpretations, and normative documents, and make decisions with reference to similar cases included in the database.

Article 21:   When hearing a case, the people’s courts at all levels shall refer to similar cases that have been included in the database. They may use the reasons and gist of the judgment of similar cases as considerations and reasons for the judgment of the current case, but they shall not be used as the basis for the judgment.

If the public prosecutor’s office, parties and their defenders, agents ad litem, etc. submit cases from the database as grounds for prosecution and defense, the People’s Court shall respond in the reasoning of the judgment document.

Article 22   The people’s courts at all levels shall make judgments based on the cases included in the database as part of the case quality evaluation.

The full text is available here from the SPC here (geo-blocked, Chinese only) and social media here (Chinese only).