Zhou Qiang, president of Supreme People’s Court addressed the Fourth Asian Mediation Association Conference[Photo by Sun Ruofeng/People's Court Daily]

Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People’s Court pledged to perfect the dispute resolution system to promote social governance and the rule of law in the Fourth Asian Mediation Association Conference held on Oct 20.

More than 300 legal experts and enterprise representatives from China, the US, the UK, Australia, Italy, Singapore, India, Malaysia and Hong Kong attended the forum and discussed topics such as "court reforms and multiple dispute resolution systems" and "comparisons between western and eastern lawyer mediation systems".

To date in China, 800,000 people’s mediation boards, under the guidance of 3,000 courts at the grass-roots level, have resolved more than 10 million disputes. The guidance of courts for mediation work can extend to the general public, government administration, industry and civil and commercial fields, according to Zhou.

Courts can give mediation agreements legal constraining force and the power of execution. In fact, courts in many regions have invited foreign experts to take part in mediation for foreign business cases and help properly resolve disputes; a step which has played a positive role in building a sound legal business environment, Zhou said.

Concerning innovation of mediation work, Zhou proposed to promote modern mediation system and coordinate all measures in resolving disputes. Such coordination is needed to make courts centers of lawsuit service and constantly expand lawyer or other expert mediation and neutral evaluation.

To enhance the effects of mediation, Zhou said that we should honor traditional mediation measures such as human interest and emotional education while researching application of modern scientific methods in mediation including Internet, big-data and artificial intelligence so as to meet changing standards and practices.