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🇨🇳 China · appellate court

Higher People's Courts

高级人民法院 / Higher People's Courts

Reviewed· 2026-08-03Provincial capitals

One in each province, autonomous region and directly administered municipality. Because Chinese civil procedure gives a losing party one appeal as of right, the higher people's court is where most significant appellate work finishes: an SPC retrial is discretionary and rare. Specialised intellectual-property tribunals sit within several of these courts, and the Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou IP Courts feed into them.

How the court is constituted

Tier
appellate
Court type
Provincial appellate court
Jurisdiction
Appeals from intermediate people's courts, first-instance trial of the most serious provincial-level cases, and review of death sentences before they are referred to the Supreme People's Court.
Seat
Provincial capitals
Established
1954

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