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Roundtable Meeting of Chief Justices and Ministers of Justice : Country Statements
New Progress in China's Legal Construction By Madame Liu Yang, Vice Minister of Justice People's Republic of ChinaBy Madame Liu Yang, Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, It's my great pleasure to be invited to attend the Roundtable Meeting of Chief Justices and Ministers of Justice from Asia-Pacific Region. Now I'd like to give a brief introduction to the situation of China's legal construction. Since reform and opening up, we have adhered to the economic construction on the one hand and to the legal construction on the other. Since 1979, we have enacted 311 laws and decisions on legal issues, over 700 regulations and nearly 4,000 administrative rules in China. Nowadays, laws can be turned to in the basic and main areas of China's political, economic and social life. The democratic rights and lawful interests of Chinese citizens have been effectively protected with the formulation of these laws, especially the revised Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, Administrative Procedure Law, National Compensation Law, the laws of protecting the aged, women, children, and the disabled people. Especially, with ruling the country with laws, the construction of socialist legal system in China will have a greater development. While speeding up the pace of legislation, China attaches great importance to the implementation of laws, and the judicial and administrative law enforcement has been continuously strengthened. Many measures have been taken: First, the nationwide dissemination of the knowledge of law has been largely developed in a planned, organized and leading manner. From 1986, we have already undergone two five-year legal knowledge publicity programs and the third five-year plans was initiated in 1996. The first "Five-year Program" focused on ten laws and one regulation including the Constitution, the Criminal Law and the General Principles of the Civil Law, etc., the second "Five-year Program" put emphasis on the Constitution and special laws for study and in the third "Five-year Program", the basic laws and regulations of the country and laws on socialist market economy become the main contents for study. So far, more than 700 million people have received legal knowledge publicity education. The legal sense of government officials in all levels and managers of enterprises, and of all citizens has been greatly improved. Second, the fostering step for the legal professionals is quickened. From 1979, the judicial administrative organ has been in-charge of the legal education. So far, the systems of higher legal education, adult legal education, professional legal education have all been established, the seven law schools directly affiliated to the Ministry of Justice alone educated 43,000 law graduates at and above the bachelor's level and more than 80 adult medium-level colleges of law administered by departments (or bureaus) of justice of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government trained 100,000 law students. After the establishment of the All-China Lawyers Correspondence Center, 430,000 students registered for study, among whom 25,000 students received college law degrees. This eased the problem of much-needed legal professionals. Third, the legal profession keeps expanding. Since the reform and opening up, particularly since the reform of lawyers' system in 1993, the legal profession has witnessed rapid development throughout China. Till now, there are altogether 8,265 law firms and 100,200 practicing lawyers in China and lawyering has become an honorable profession at present in China. The Ministry of Justice organizes a national uniform bar exam each year and the number of applicants for the exam keeps increasing. In recent three years, there were over 100,000 examinees each year and the number reached 120,000 last year. A great number of outstanding legal talents were admitted to the bar in accordance with related qualifications and these people have strengthened the legal profession. In the meantime, 73 foreign law firms were approved to set up their offices in China and 7 Chinese law firms established their business offices abroad as well. Fourth, a legal aid system has been preliminarily set up and demonstrated its thriving vitality. After the founding of new China, although terms on the legal aid could be found in some laws, there formed no effective system. The legal aid system is established in the Criminal Procedure Law and the Lawyers' Law in effect this year, which has enabled the poor, the weak and the disabled in the community to fully use their legitimate rights of citizens and seek justice. Up to now, the Legal Aid Center of China has been established, 47 legal aid centers have been set up in large and medium-sized cities throughout the country, which have handled nearly a thousand pro bono service cases so far and exerted an extensive and positive social influence. Fifth, legal supervision and law enforcement inspection system in China is being progressively improved. The people's congresses and political consultative conferences at all levels have put into full play of their functions in legal supervision and political involvement and consultations. The administrative bodies at all levels have also consolidated their law enforcement and supervision dynamics. The law enforcement and inspection have achieved better results. Certainly, the Chinese legal construction is still in the process of development. Therefore, there exist some areas in need of enhancement and improvement. We wish to further strengthen the judicial exchange and cooperation with countries in this region and to safeguard the healthy development of cooperation of the region in the field of economy and trade through legal efforts, and strive for the common interests of the people of all countries in Asia and Pacific region. Thank you.
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