On July 16, 2019, the Shenzhen court announced the top ten typical administrative cases of Shenzhen in 2018.The case "Zhang v. Shenzhen Municipal People's Government on Government Information Disclosure," represented by the Art Litigation Team of Wang Tengfeng from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm, topped the list!

This case originated from an administrative lawsuit filed by our client Zhang against the Shenzhen Municipal Human Settlements and Environment Commission (another case) due to environmental pollution caused by a new government power plant project. Because the case involved government information disclosure, this "case within a case" arose.

In 2015, Zhang submitted an application to the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, requesting the disclosure of the "Study on Site Selection and Planning Design Conditions for the Shangkengtang Site of the Shenzhen Eastern Waste-to-Energy Plant (Eastern Environmental Protection Plant) (Draft for Review)" submitted by the Shenzhen Municipal Planning and Land Resources Commission to the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, the written opinions of the Shenzhen Municipal Urban Planning Committee on the approval of the above project and documents, and the written documents of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government approving the above project and documents.

However, this reasonable application by Zhang was rejected by the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government. The reason was that the content he requested to disclose was generated during internal communication, research, and review among the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government and the Shenzhen Municipal Planning and Land Resources Commission regarding the construction of the Shenzhen Eastern Waste-to-Energy Plant.Procedural information is not government information that should be disclosed.

The case was heard in the first instance.The judgment ruled against the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government.The court held that administrative organs should lawfully disclose information on the approval and implementation of major construction projects. The judgment revoked the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government's decision to deny Zhang's information disclosure application and ordered the government to reprocess the matter. Subsequently, the Shenzhen Municipal Government appealed to the Guangdong Provincial High Court. In the end, our side achieved a complete victory with the provincial high court's final judgment dismissing the Shenzhen Municipal Government's appeal and upholding the original verdict.

The victory in this case demonstrates the profound expertise and superb courtroom skills of the Wang Tengfeng Artistic Litigation Team in handling administrative cases. Starting from the perspective of major public interests, the team focused on the government's "approval information" and its so-called "procedural information," deeply studied substantive and procedural administrative law, seized on the government's flaw of "conflating its own deliberative and decision-making actions with the specific actions of functional departments," and boldly argued that "the government's decision to deny disclosure was a deliberate misinterpretation of legal provisions, lacking due responsibility, and intended to shirk obligations and avoid conflicts." Ultimately, their brilliant defense won support from both levels of courts.

Behind this victory lies the highly responsible and courageous professional spirit of the Wang Tengfeng Artistic Litigation Team in handling the case. Even against the formidable opponent of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, they achieved overwhelming victories in both trials, a rare feat in administrative litigation cases handled by lawyers.This case was included as the top of the ten typical administrative cases in Shenzhen in 2018, marking another significant contribution of art litigation in promoting the fairness of administrative trials.