Assessing Judicial Delocalisation: A Decade of the Circuit Courts of China's Supreme People's Court and the Way Forward

Judicial localisation has posed significant challenges to China's central government's rule of law initiative and has prompted various reform strategies. The establishment of the Circuit Courts of China's Supreme People's Court in 2015 aimed at combatting judicial localisation and local protectionism. While the Circuit Courts have demonstrated some effectiveness within the past decade via increased accessibility and improved case handling, their overall impact has been limited by two main factors: the dilution of the original focus on delocalisation due to additional functions and jurisdictional constraints that have inadvertently restricted access to the Supreme People's Court. Future progress will depend largely on support from the apex political and legislative bodies.