'All rise,' Beijing gets taste of US courtroom
By Liu Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-05-13 06:17

Peking University yesterday played host to a criminal hearing with an American twist.

Judges from Massachusetts assumed the roles of judge, prosecutor, lawyer, defendant, clerk and witnesses in a mock domestic violence lawsuit with 12 law students from the university sitting in the jury box.

The defendant William Goodwin was charged with carrying a knife and the domestic assault and battery of his wife.

But he got off scot-free as the 12 student jurors concluded there was insufficient evidence to send him away.

More than 100 students and teachers from the university's Law School, as well as some Chinese judges based in Beijing sat in on the mock trial.

"I believe that it is a good chance for us to be close to the judicial system of the United States," Wang Aixia, a second-year postgraduate law student and one of the "jurors," said yesterday.

"It is not enough for us to only learn from books," Wang said.

Another student Gao Fawei said that he was impressed by the procedure of the mock trial.

"If I could become a judge in the future, I would also ensure fair procedures in my work," he said.

Peter Anderson, first justice of the Boston Municipal Court Brighton Division who played the defendant, said the mock trial was a good way for law students and experts from the United States and China to learn from each other.

The event was sponsored by the US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Massachusetts Judges Conference together with the John W McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies under the University of Massachusetts Boston which first held the mock trials in China in 2002.

The 15-member delegation is scheduled to travel to Chongqing in Southwest China and other Chinese cities in the coming days to conduct more mock trials and academic exchanges at local universities.

(China Daily 05/13/2005 page3)

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