2022年5月25日，最高人民法院发布《最高人民法院关于加强区块链司法应用的意见》（以下简称《意见》）。这是人民法院深入贯彻习近平法治思想、落实习近平总书记关于推动区块链技术创新发展重要指示精神的具体举措，将进一步推进人民法院运用以区块链为代表的关键技术加速人民法院数字化变革、创造更高水平数字正义，促进法治与科技深度融合发展、推动智慧法治建设迈向更高层次。
以习近平同志为核心的党中央高度重视区块链技术应用和发展。习近平总书记强调，要把区块链作为核心技术自主创新的重要突破口，加快推动区块链技术和产业创新发展，积极推进区块链和经济社会融合发展。近年来，人民法院大力推进区块链技术在司法领域应用，建成人民法院司法区块链平台，司法区块链上链存证超过22亿条，存固证据、智能辅助、卷宗管理等方面应用效能和规范程度不断提升，电子证据、电子送达存验证防篡改等应用场景落地见效。
为进一步加强区块链在司法领域应用，充分发挥区块链在促进司法公信、服务社会治理、防范化解风险、推动高质量发展等方面的作用，最高人民法院在充分调研、广泛征求意见、多方论证基础上，制定出台《意见》。《意见》包括七个部分32条内容，明确人民法院加强区块链司法应用总体要求及人民法院区块链平台建设要求，提出区块链技术在提升司法公信力、提高司法效率、增强司法协同能力、服务经济社会治理等四个方面典型场景应用方向，明确区块链应用保障措施。《意见》主要有以下几个鲜明特点：
一是提出建成互通共享的司法区块链联盟。《意见》提出到2025年，建成人民法院与社会各行各业互通共享的区块链联盟，数据核验、可信操作、智能合约、跨链协同等基础支持能力大幅提升，司法区块链跨链联盟融入经济社会运行体系，主动服务营商环境优化、经济社会治理、风险防范化解和产业创新发展，服务平安中国、法治中国、数字中国和诚信中国建设，形成中国特色、世界领先的区块链司法领域应用模式。
二是明确人民法院区块链平台建设要求。《意见》明确要求人民法院加强区块链应用顶层设计、持续推进跨链协同应用能力建设、提升司法区块链技术能力、建设互联网司法区块链验证平台、建立健全标准规范体系。《意见》提出要打造开放共享的全国法院司法区块链平台，加强司法区块链平台与各行业区块链平台跨链联盟建设，持续提升协同能力；要在互联网端建设司法区块链验证平台，支持当事人等相关主体对调解数据、电子证据、诉讼文书等司法数据进行真伪核验。
三是提出运用区块链数据防篡改技术提升司法公信力。《意见》提出推进人民法院电子卷宗、电子档案、司法统计报表等司法数据上链存储，推动执行案件等数据和操作上链存证，推动人民法院送达的诉讼文书和送达回执在司法区块链平台统一存储，保障司法数据安全、操作合规。《意见》明确健全完善区块链平台证据核验功能，支持当事人和法官在线核验通过区块链存储的电子证据，推动完善区块链存证的标准和规则，提升电子证据认定的效率和质量。
四是提出应用区块链优化业务流程提高司法效率。《意见》提出支持立案信息流转应用、调解与审判流程衔接应用、审判与执行流程衔接联动、提升执行效率、支持执行干警便捷办案等五个典型应用场景，提高业务流程自动化水平，提升司法效率。《意见》提出建立调解协议不履行自动触发审判立案、执行立案等业务规则和智能合约程序，增强调解程序司法权威，支持多元纠纷化解。
五是提出应用区块链互通联动促进司法协同。《意见》提出构建人民法院与司法行政部门跨链协同应用，支持实现参与诉讼活动的律师资质、信用报告在线查询及核验，提高核验实时性；提出构建人民法院与检察、公安、司法行政等部门的跨链协同应用，提高案件在线流转效率和数据互信水平；构建人民法院与行政执法、不动产登记、金融证券保险机构、联合信用惩戒等单位的跨链协同应用，建立自动化执行查控和信用惩戒模式，提高协同执行工作效率。
六是提出利用区块链联盟互信服务经济社会治理。《意见》提出推进构建与知识产权、市场监管、产权登记、交易平台、数据权属、数据交易、金融机构、相关政府部门等区块链平台跨链协同应用机制，支持知识产权保护、营商环境优化、数据开发利用、金融信息流转应用、企业破产重组、征信体系建设等。
On May 25, 2022, the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China released the “Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on Strengthening Blockchain Application in the Judicial Field” (hereinafter referred as “the Opinions”), which indicates the concrete actions of the people’s courts in thoroughly implementing the Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s valuable instructions on promoting the innovative development of the blockchain technology. By further facilitating the people’s courts to accelerate the digital transformation with the support of key technologies represented by blockchain and to achieve a higher level of digital justice, the Opinions will promote the in-depth integrated development of the rule of law and technology as well as the higher-quality intelligent rule of law.
The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to the application and development of blockchain technology. General Secretary Xi Jinping noted that the blockchain should serve as an essential breakthrough point in independently innovating core technologies and he called for speedy efforts in boosting the innovative development of blockchain technology and industry so as to actively promote the integrated development of blockchain, economy, and society. In recent years, the people’s courts have vigorously furthered the blockchain application in the judicial field by establishing judicial blockchain platforms with over 2.2 billion pieces of evidence stored on the judicial blockchain. The platforms have witnessed the constant improvement of application efficiency and standardization in evidence storage and solidifying, intelligent assistance, case file management, etc., and leveraged blockchain’s strengths in ensuring that electronic evidence and electronic service are stored safely, verified online, and tamper-proof and in other application scenarios.
In order to strengthen blockchain application in the judicial field and give full play to blockchain’s role in cementing judicial credibility, facilitating social governance, preventing and resolving risks, promoting high-quality development, etc., the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China has formulated and released the Opinions on the basis of comprehensive investigation, extensive consultation, and sufficient argumentation. 32 items included in seven parts of the Opinions clarify the overall requirements for blockchain application in the judicial field and requirements for building the blockchain platforms of the people’s courts, chart courses for four typical application scenarios where blockchain technology facilitates the enhancement of judicial credibility, judicial efficiency, judicial collaboration, and economic and social governance, and specify guarantee measures of blockchain application. The Opinions’ features fall into the following six aspects:
First, proposing to build a judicial blockchain alliance featuring interconnectivity and sharing. According to the Opinions, by 2025, a blockchain alliance featuring interconnectivity and sharing between the people’s courts and all social sectors will come into being with the capabilities for fundamental support for data verification, trusted operation, smart contract, interoperation collaboration, etc. to be dramatically improved. By then, the judicial blockchain interoperation alliance is to be integrated into the economic and social operation system, which will actively contribute to the improvement of the business environment, economic and social governance, risk prevention and resolution, and industrial innovation and development, back China to become a peaceful, digital and credit-based country under the rule of law, and foster a world-leading model of blockchain application in the judicial field with Chinese characteristics.
Second, clarifying requirements on building the blockchain platforms of the people’s courts. The Opinions make it clear that the people’s courts need to strengthen the top-level design of blockchain application, constantly advance capacity building for interoperation collaborative application, enhance technical capabilities of the judicial blockchain, build an Internet-based judicial blockchain verification platform, and establish and optimize a standard system. In addition, the Opinions specify that it is required to create an open and shared judicial blockchain platform among people’s courts nationwide, boost the development of the interoperation alliance of the judicial blockchain platform and that of all walks of life so as to constantly enhance synergy, and build a judicial blockchain verification platform on the Internet, which enables parties and other relevant subjects to verify the authenticity of mediation data, electronic evidence, litigation documents, and other judicial data.
Third, proposing to utilize data tamper-proof technology of blockchain to enhance judicial credibility. In the Opinions, it is required that judicial data of the people’s courts, including electronic case files, electronic archives, and judicial statistical reports, is expected to be stored on the blockchain. Moreover, it is necessary to store data and operations of enforcement cases on the blockchain, uniformly store litigation documents served by the people’s courts and receipts of service on the judicial blockchain platform so as to ensure the security of judicial data and compliance of operations. The Opinions also stipulate that it is necessary to perfect the evidence verification function of the blockchain platform, which enables parties and judges to verify the electronic evidence stored on the blockchain online, so as to contribute to setting sound standards and rules for blockchain-based storage and improve the efficiency and quality of electronic evidence identification.
Fourth, proposing to optimize business processes with blockchain application to constantly improve judicial efficiency. The Opinions outline five typical application scenarios where blockchain enables circulation and application of case-filing information, connected application between mediation and trial procedures, the connection between trial and enforcement procedures, enhancement of enforcement efficiency, and enables enforcement officers and police staff to handle cases more conveniently, making more automatic business processes and higher judicial efficiency possible. Moreover, the Opinions intend to set operational rules on automatically triggering the trial procedure or the enforcement procedure upon the failure to perform mediation agreements and launch the smart contract procedure, so as to cement the judicial authority of the mediation procedure and support diversified dispute resolution.
Fifth, proposing to leverage blockchain interconnectivity to enhance judicial collaboration. The Opinions advocate to realize interoperation collaborative application between the people’s courts and administrative organs, which enables online inquiry and verification of qualifications and credit reports of lawyers in litigation activities, with higher time efficiency; to realize interoperation collaborative application between the people’s courts and procuratorial, public security, judicial, administrative and other organs, so as to improve the efficiency of online case circulation and data mutual trust; to realize interoperation collaborative application between the people’s courts and organs involved in administrative law enforcement, immovable property registration, financial securities and insurance, or organs cooperatively imposing credit-based punishment, etc. and develop a model of automatically carrying out investigation and control in enforcement and imposing credit-based punishment, so as to improve the working efficiency of collaborative enforcement.
Sixth, proposing to exploit the mutual trustworthiness of the blockchain alliance to facilitate economic and social governance. The Opinions suggest that an interoperation collaborative mechanism with blockchain platforms for intellectual property, market regulation, property registration, transactions, data ownership, online data trading, financial institutions, relevant government departments, etc. should be built so as to support intellectual property protection, business environment improvement, data development and utilization, circulation and application of financial information, bankruptcy and restructuring of enterprises, construction of the credit system, etc.
