Previous litigation activities in China focused on investigation, in which courts made their judgment only based on the evidence or testimony provided by the police, legal experts have long pointed out. Such practice could lead to miscarriages of justice, Bi said.

Trials should be decisive in confirming evidence, establishing facts and reaching fair judgments, a role which they are not yet playing fully, and judicial protection for human rights still needs to be improved, said deputy SPC head Li Shaoping.

The principle of "judging by evidence" must be implemented and the courts must reject any illegally obtained evidence, according to the guidelines. Meanwhile, supervision over the judges must be reinforced to avoid abuses of power and miscarriages of justice.

The top court also emphasizes the leadership of the Communist Party of China in the process of judicial reform, and raised caution over speculations that the reform has anything to do with Western political systems.

A meeting of the SPC Party committee on Wednesday noted that the Western notion of "judicial independence" and "separation of powers" should be rejected.

The meeting added that the influence of the West's erroneous thought and mistaken opinions should be resisted.

"There were some misunderstandings about China's judicial reforms on judicial independence," Chen Weidong, a law professor with the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times. "But this goal is different from the Western notion of judicial independence."

Western-style judicial independence is a political concept that is built on a multi-party system and the "separation of powers," Chen said. "China's judicial independence means that a court can conduct its trials and judgments according to the law, while under the leadership of the CPC."

The fourth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in October 2014 reiterated the leadership of the Party in pursuing "the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics."

China's experience in the past has showed that only the CPC can build a national top-down legal system, Bi said.