The first group of law students interning under a half-year program at the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), China’s top court, recently wrapped up their internships.

On March 29, SPC President and Chief Justice Zhou Qiang met with the interns and encouraged them to make greater achievements in their future studies and work.

Xu Jiaxin, Party secretary of the court, called for deep integration of legal education and practice, as well as innovation in the cultivation of legal talent.

Through the legal internship program, which is an important bond between China’s law schools and justice system, law students from around the country attend judicial proceedings and apply their knowledge to real-life situations, thus gaining a better understanding of the work involved and improving their skills.

Xu said that relevant law schools and judicial organs have set up platforms to jointly foster legal talent. They share resources, complement each other’s advantages, carry out exchanges and cooperation, and make innovations in nurturing the country’s best young legal minds.

The SPC should select interns for the program in strict accordance with relevant criteria, specify duties and powers, and research performance review mechanisms, Xu noted. He added that while more efforts should be made to expand the fields that can accept interns and increase the number of internships, the SPC should also discuss with law schools the possibility of adopting students’ internship experiences into academic credit systems to encourage more students to participate in judicial work.

Outstanding interns were announced at the meeting and certificates were awarded to all the interns.