Nanfang Daily Reports Dacheng Attorney’s Advocacy for Online Disclosure of Court Documents

On January 23, a special report titled “Build an Online Litigation Service Platform and Improve Online Disclosure of Court Documents” was published on Nanfang Daily (“Nanfang ribao” in Chinese pinyin), in which the story of attorney Zhang Xiang, Dacheng senior partner and director of the Shenzhen office’s Marketing and Specialization Committee, who has been an active advocate of posting court documents online, was told, supplemented by an interview with him.
 
According to the report, attorney Zhang Xiang has been calling for disclosing all court documents on the Internet with a number of other attorneys as early as 2010. He once published a letter written to Professor Huang Yaying, who is also member of the People’s Congress of Shenzhen and dean of School of Law of Shenzhen University, to alert the professor’s attention to the issues related to the rule of law in Shenzhen, including online disclosure of court documents. His letter received immediate response from the professor. Now, attorney Zhang’s advocacy was finally materialized. It is decided that from January 1 2014 on, all levels of courts in Shenzhen will post their court documents online for public reference.
 
In 2010, Nanfang City News (“Nanfang dushi bao” in Chinese pinyin) named attorney Zhang as Man of the Year in Shenzhen for his enthusiastic involvement in democracy building and the advocacy of rule of law. As the only representative from the legal profession, his thoughts are also included in “Top 10 Concepts of Shenzhen” (“Shenzhen shida guannian” in Chinese pinyin), a book recording innovate concepts and thoughts in the three decades since the reform and opening up started.