With more than 800 million Internet users in China, online disputes between citizens are common. So, to cope with the huge volume of Internet, the country has created not one, but two “Internet courts.”
On Saturday, the second of two courts, called the “Beijing Internet Court,” opened. It will handle cases related to corporate financial transactions, personal information, and intellectual property rights.
According to the state news agency, Xinhua, the number of Internet-related cases has increased and continues to grow rapidly. In the first eight months of 2018, the court said it had about 37,630 pending cases, a 24.4 percent increase over the same period last year.
The new Internet court will be open 24 hours a day, and its staff will consist of 38 judges with many years of experience. According to Zhang Wen, the court's president, the "youngest" of the judges will have more than 10 years of experience in the field.
The court will provide a “digital dispute resolution platform,” where anyone can view information related to each case, as well as each judge’s final decision.
Furthermore, according to sources, a third Internet court will begin operating by the end of the month, which will be located in the southern part of the country.
The first Internet court in China opened in August 2017, and in its first year of operation, it "closed" 10,600 of the 12,000 cases assigned to it.
