This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the court system of the People’s Republic of China, in addition to evaluating the current situation and upcoming court reforms. It starts by describing the functions, competencies and structure of the Supreme People's Court, local people’s courts and specialized people’s courts. This paper then analyzes the relationship of people's courts with other national and local state organs such as people’s congresses, people’s governments and people's procuratorates as well as institutions of the Chinese Communist Party. To follow, there is a chapter about the internal organization of the people's courts, which covers court divisions, court president and vice court presidents, chief judges of divisions, collegial panels and the judicial committee. According to the Chinese court system, litigants are limited to a single appeal. However, resumption of proceedings functions as a de-facto third instance. The constitution of the People’s Republic of China guarantees procedural principles such as the principle of public trials; but, these principles are not yet fully implemented. Further, this paper examines the rights and duties, qualifications, appointment and removal of judges, people’s assessors and other court personnel. Fighting inefficiency of people’s courts and judiciary corruption are most pressing challenges of the Chinese court system. Many Western observers underestimate the complexity of the Chinese situation. In a de facto one-party system, measures of Western democracies are subject to various constraints, and, accordingly, their system cannot simply be labeled as the “best practice”. Consequently, this paper calls for new approaches to reform that better take into account the Chinese social and legal situation. Reforming the financial system of people’s courts, granting more financial independence to the people’s courts as well as promoting legal training to judicial personnel should be the next steps
