On June 3, the People’s Court of Sanming City inaugurated the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Judicial Service Center in the Sanming Legal Service District. This initiative is designed to proactively respond to the evolving trends and needs in corporate governance and development, enhance the legal business environment, and bolster the high-quality development of Sanming. a historic revolutionary base and now a demonstration zone. The ESG legal services in the Sanming Legal Service District represent a pioneering innovation, currently unmatched by any other legal service districts elsewhere.

The ESG Judicial Service Center specializes in commercial adjudication services, integrating judicial functions from two levels of the court system. It offers enterprises comprehensive litigation services, including the submission and transfer of case materials, multi-faceted dispute resolution, and compliance reform. The Center aims to streamline the handling of various commercial disputes, primarily those related to ESG, through a “one-stop, multi-solution, integrated governance” approach. This creates a unified judicial service framework that primarily serves the new urban area and extends its reach across the entire city. The ESG Judicial Service Center is another significant initiative by the People’s Court of Sanming City, following last year’s advancements in green finance judiciary, corporate compliance reform, and judicial services to support the development of private enterprises. This also lays the groundwork for the next step in establishing an ecological court in Sanming with cross-regional centralized jurisdiction over environmental resource cases.

ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, serving as a metric and management tool to assess an enterprise's sustainable development and low-carbon initiatives. On the environmental front, it focuses on the enterprise’s endeavors in ecological protection. Socially, it highlights the safeguarding of shareholders, employees, and consumer rights. In terms of governance, it scrutinizes the enterprise's governance structure and compliance practices. The newly revised Company Law, scheduled to take effect on July 1, integrates ESG principles into its fundamental guidelines and detailed provisions within the “General Principles” and “Specific Provisions” sections. Litigation concerning ESG is increasingly becoming a notable aspect of judicial practice.