China vows judicial disclosure after outcry over plan to curb access to rulings

China's top court has pledged to "deepen judicial disclosure" after its plan to curtail access to court decisions faced unusual public criticism from lawyers and legal experts. The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) announced in December it would create a new database of over 2,000 cases accessible to scholars, lawyers and experts. That decade-old archive, known as China Judgments Online, has been used by lawyers and activists in China and abroad, as well as by citizens involved in property and business disputes.