President of the Supreme People's Court

The president of the Supreme People's Court is the head of the Supreme People's Court and is the highest-ranking official in the Chinese judiciary.

President of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China
中华人民共和国最高人民法院院长
Emblem of the Supreme People's Court
Incumbent Zhang Jun since 11 March 2023
Supreme People's Court
Status	Deputy-national leader level official
Member of	Supreme People's Court
Reports to	National People's Congress and its Standing Committee
Seat	Beijing
Nominator	Presidium of the National People's Congress
Appointer	National People's Congress
Term length	Five years, renewable once consecutively
Constituting instrument	Constitution of China
Formation	1 October 1949; 75 years ago (1949-10-01)
First holder	Shen Junru
Deputy	Vice President of the Supreme People's Court
Website	www.court.gov.cn/jgsz/zgrmfyld/

President of the Supreme People's Court
Simplified Chinese	中华人民共和国最高人民法院院长
Traditional Chinese	中華人民共和國最高人民法院院長
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó Zuìgāo Rénmín Fǎyuàn Yuànzhǎng
Chief Justice of the People's Republic of China
Simplified Chinese	中华人民共和国首席大法官
Traditional Chinese	中華人民共和國首席大法官
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó Shǒuxídà Fǎguān

Under the current constitution, the president of the SPC is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the National People's Congress (NPC), the legislature. The president also serves ex officio as the chief justice of the People's Republic of China. The incumbent president of the Supreme People's Court is Zhang Jun, who took office on 11 March 2023.

History

The Supreme People's Court of the Central People's Government was established on 1 October 1949. Shen Junru served as the first president by the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.^[1]

On 27 September 1954, the SPC of the Central People's Government was replaced with the SPC of the People's Republic of China.^{[citation needed]}

Selection

According to the Organic Law of the National People's Congress (NPC), constitutionally China's highest organ of state power, the president is nominated by the NPC Presidium, the Congress's executive organ.^[2] However, the nomination is effectively made by the Chinese Communist Party, with the decisions being made among Party leaders.^[3] Although the Presidium could theoretically nominate multiple candidates for the presidency, leading the election to be competitive, it has always nominated a single candidate for the office.^[3]

After the nomination, the president is elected by the NPC, which also has the power to remove the president and other state officers from office. Elections and removals are decided by majority vote.^[4] The length of the president's term of office is the same as the NPC, which is 5 years, and the president is restricted to two consecutive terms.^[4] Since 2018, the president is required to recite the constitutional oath of office before assuming office.^[3]

Powers

According to the Judges Law of the People's Republic of China, the president of the SPC is the chief justice of the People's Republic of China.^[5]

List of presidents

No.	Chairperson		NPC term	Took office	Left office	Political Party
President of the Supreme People's Court of the Central People's Government
1		Shen Junru 沈钧儒	N/A	October 1, 1949	September 27, 1954	China Democratic League (CDL)
President of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China
2		Dong Biwu 董必武	1st	September 27, 1954	April 27, 1959	Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
3		Xie Juezai 谢觉哉	2nd	April 27, 1959	January 3, 1965
4		Yang Xiufeng 杨秀峰	3rd	January 3, 1965	January 20, 1975
5		Jiang Hua 江华	4th	January 20, 1975	March 5, 1978
			5th	March 5, 1978	June 20, 1983
6		Zheng Tianxiang 郑天翔	6th	June 20, 1983	April 9, 1988
7		Ren Jianxin 任建新	7th	April 9, 1988	March 28, 1993
			8th	March 28, 1993	March 17, 1998
8		Xiao Yang 肖扬	9th	March 17, 1998	March 16, 2003
			10th	March 16, 2003	March 16, 2008
9		Wang Shengjun 王胜俊	11th	March 16, 2008	March 15, 2013
10		Zhou Qiang 周强	12th	March 15, 2013	March 18, 2018
			13th	March 18, 2018	March 11, 2023
11		Zhang Jun 张军	14th	March 11, 2023	Incumbent

Timeline

References

1. "1st meeting of the CPPCC" (PDF). The Common Program of the People's Republic of China. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 September 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
2. "Organic Law of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China". National People's Congress. 11 March 2021. Archived from the original on 11 January 2023. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
3. Liao, Zewei (2023-03-04). "NPC 2023: How China Selects Its State Leaders for the Next Five Years". NPC Observer. Archived from the original on 2023-11-07. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
4. "Constitution of the People's Republic of China". National People's Congress. Archived from the original on 3 January 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
5. "Judges Law of the People's Republic of China". Ministry of Justice. 24 June 2021. Archived from the original on 20 September 2021. Retrieved 20 September 2024.