Judicial interns earn their first day in court

With a mixture of excitement and nervousness Sun Liang, a postgraduate student at Tsinghua University's law school, visited China's top court as one of the first 50 judicial interns.

"I never went to the Supreme People's Court, let alone thought I could be an intern in the place," said Sun, 27.

"Many of my classmates applied for the placement and our school informed us that after strict selection I became the lucky one."

Sun, with another 49 students from different law schools, will learn how to be judge assistant, a new role helping judges draft verdicts and undertake research in line with judicial reforms raised by the central leadership in 2013, said Pang Jinwen, a judge named as the interns' "teacher" of criminal tribunal at the top court.

Pang's tribunal specializes in foreign-related criminal cases and he said one of the two interns assigned to him is from China Foreign Affairs University, "which is the most effective combination of what he studies and what we work on."

In addition to the interns, a further 10 law professionals also registered with the top court for a year-long research course.

The 10 specialists, selected from 26 candidates recommended by the national university and academic institutes, will participate in drafting judicial interpretations with the top court and making studies for the judicial reform, as well as being allowed to develop their own judicial projects, according to Xu Jiaxin, an official taking charge of the talent program.

"These specialistswill be asked to complete 10 projects, such as legal aid and minor crime. They will also take part in case hearings and be asked to provide solutions for problems they find in the current judicial work," said Xu.

Zhou Qiang, China's top judge, highlighted the importance of the program, saying it is aimed at implementing the rule of law and the central government's requirement to educate or train judicial talents.

Further pushing judicial reform, a series of new problems have arisen, "which not only need judges, but also legal academics to discuss and jointly seek solutions," Zhou said.

In July 2012, the top court issued a guideline to encourage cooperation and talks with law schools of universities. Since then, a batch of law research bases has been built up and a learning system between institutions has been explored.

Song Xianzhong, one of the 10 law specialists, said he teaches what he is reading and learning from legal articles to students without legal practice, "which sometimes will become a block for me and them to solve problems in reality."

"The chance to research and work at the top can contribute to avoiding such blocks, and my practice that I will share in future classes will help students understand more about Chinese laws and be useful if they become legal officers," Song added.