|
2008 Beijing Olympic Games
A court house for the OlympicsPosted by Brendan O'Kane, July 16, 2008 11:04 PM
 Like KTV, but with jail sentences! The Olympic Village People's Court is a Beijing court soecially set up to deal with Olympic legal issues. The Olympic Village People's Court moved out of its temporary location in Yayuncun and into snazzy new digs between the Athletes' Village and the Badaling Expressway today. The court is the seventh commissary court of the Chaoyang District People's Court, and—as may be seen in the pictures at left and below—is totally sweet, with flat-panel TVs, touch-screen information systems, and a plaster wall covered with different versions of the character 法 (law) that reminded your correspondent of the ugliest tie he's ever seen. The Olympic Village People's Court has heard 4,722 cases since first opening for business in late June of last year, of which it has resolved 4,380. (If this were baseball, the Olympic Village People's Court would be batting 0.93.) To date, only 20 of those cases have actually been Olympic-related, but 32 year-old presiding judge Qian Yixin is confident that with a 52 square kilometer jurisdiction that covers the Bird's Nest, the Water Cube, the Athletes' Village, the Media Center, and many of the Chaoyang District's foreigner-catering hotels, the court will have plenty more ahead of it. The court—China's first court to have 'Olympic' in the name, Xinhua informs us—will primarily hear civil cases pertaining to home rentals, labor disputes, property damage and personal injury, as well as disputes specifically caused by Olympic-related tourism, hotel accommodation, and the like.  Trials to feature color commentary, instant replay The court has 11 courtrooms, including one handicapped-accessible courtroom and a courtroom for cases involving foreigners that can seat 27 observers and has a three-channel simultaneous interpreting system. Xinhua's website also shows flat-panel television screens flanking the judge's bench in at least one courtroom—perhaps so that plaintiffs won't have to miss the Games. All signage is in Chinese and English, and all cases—excepting those involving state secrets—will be fully open in accordance with Chinese law, Qian says. The court will hear approximately 70% of Olympic-related cases during the Games. Links and Sources
|
Partner Links
Jobs in China
Recent Comments
AllSeeingE on
Send a postcard to the future
Peter Andr on
Cats and dogs in the animal cruelty law
hanmeng on
Al Jazeera on potential dog meat ban
singingblu on
2012: a disaster movie not suitable for children
NINGT on
Goons and thugs
Len Chiu on
The body in the lake
Christie on
Pole dancing: for fitness, not about sex
Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
 Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
 Diamond Hill by Feng Chi-shun: Feng's memoir Diamond Hill describes an era of gambling and gangsters, Suzie Wong and squatter villages, fires and food stalls, and the Kowloon Walled City and its white powder. "A time when people were poor, but life was rich," he says. The world that he grew up in no longer exists, but his book - the first ever on the Diamond Hill refugee settlement, in either Chinese or English - offers a candid picture of what life was like for most Hong Kong residents in the 1950s.
William A. Callahan's China: The Pessoptimist Nation: China: The Pessoptimist Nation shows how the heart of Chinese foreign policy is not a security dilemma, but an identity dilemma. Through a careful analysis of how Chinese people understand their new place in the world, the book charts how Chinese identity emerges through the interplay of positive and negative feelings in a dynamic that intertwines China's domestic and international politics.
The WTO ruling: a half victory at best: In August 2009, a World Trade Organization panel ruled against China's system of monopoly control over entertainment products. Was this the victory supporters hailed as the dawn of a new day for American and global entertainment companies in the China market?
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ Street hawker cries of Beijing (2006.12): Yang Changhe demonstrates hawker's cries in a video shot by Muzimei. + New Weekly: Do Chinese kids know anything about traditonal Chinese culture? (2004.06): Q: Do you know what China's four great inventions are? Paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder 49.3% know all four, 37.3% get one or more wrong, 13.3% don't know at all (2004.06.12) + Some questions about SARFT's full-stop for Red Question Mark (2007.09): SARFT axes Red Question Mark (红问号). He Dong (何东) responds.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky
 (on the mainland)or Feedburner  (blocked in China) Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links) Top Links: Links from the top bar Danwei Jobs: Want ads Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30 |
 |
Chinese media, advertising, and urban life. |
|
tweet
facebook
bookmark
HaoHao
digg
Comments on A court house for the Olympics
All those people forced out of their homes to make way for the Olympic Village, is this where their compensation lawsuits are being heard? Oh right, Beijing courts were ordered not to accept any cases from disgruntled Olympic forced evictees, although property damage and personal injury would suggest otherwise. Or not?
My Correspondent, can you clue me in on how open the Chinese court system is to foreigners who want to sit in on trials? Any idea what sort of paperwork is involved, if any?
i had wondered to myself the other day after reading Danwei's "Securolympics" post whether the capital had invested in the expansion and/or upgrading of its prison facilities in the run-up to the Games.
it would be odd if the capital failed to either (a) expand its short-term detention facilities in order to accommodate and process an increased number of felons and misdemeanants during the Games; or (b) to upgrade those facilities that might be used imprison, however briefly, "foreign guests."
and yet, it's perfectly understandable why state media might not want to report on that. "China's enemies" would eat that story up, would they not?
Olympics Monies Used to Build Prisons in Beijing.
I'm sure Xinhua is wrong here. Bamboo strips from the tomb of a mid-Xia Dynasty magistrate indicate that he presided over an "Olympic Yamen" in around 2000BCE, well before those lying Greeks stole the idea off China.
I'm afraid that when I see the words "Village" and "People" written consecutively it brings a completely different image to my mind. Can anyone remember if one of the band members was a judge? I can only recall the policeman.
Will there be another press release coming soon to reveal the official uniforms to be worn by the Village People's Court special police?
Usually batting averages are written as three digits after a decimal point, with the initial "0" omitted, thus "batting .927" rather than "batting 0.93."
Hate to be one to spread misinformation, so despite what I've heard and read from pretty reliable sources about Beijing courts being ordered not to 受理 any home evictee compensation/ownership cases connected to the Olympics, someone of equal repute tweeted me and told me that they have seen such cases heard in courts in Beijing. No links on hand either way, however.