Jurists as young as 30 share their view of an improving legal system
Nick Gentle 15 February 2009
Maybe you could look at us as a new generation, certainly we are younger,” says 30-year-old Molly Yan Wei. While 30 may not seem young, it is when you consider that she was appointed a judge of the Hunan High People’s Court three years ago, at age 27.
“I think we are very lucky in China that we don’t need to wait many, many years and then become a judge,” said Judge Yan, who now sits in the appellate court dealing with intellectual property cases. “We can just start learning from the very beginning and have a very long career.”
For those immersed in the legal traditions of the west, where becoming a judge entails spending time as a practising lawyer before taking a pay cut to sit on the bench, the idea of an appeals court judge in their 30s is odd, to say the least.
But for Judge Yan and her mainland colleagues (the oldest of whom is 46) who are in Hong Kong to study at City University, the idea of a judge in their 60s does not make sense either.
“In China, we have 1.3 billion people, so there are many, many cases,” said Stony Ma Xuetao, a 33-year-old judge in the administrative law division of the Hainan High People’s Court. “Perhaps for a judge over 60 or 70 years old, I think he probably cannot deal with this volume.”
His speciality is judicial review, a burgeoning area of practice in the mainland, where it is increasingly being used to counter actions by local or provincial governments.
Judge Ma said the legal system and legal environment in China had improved. He said the mainland’s accession to the World Trade Organisation had forced great changes to the judicial system, which in the past had been criticised as being merely an extension of the central government and a retirement scheme for People’s Liberation Army officers and party faithful.
But it has been acknowledged that great strides have been taken, particularly in the past two decades, to increase the independence of the judiciary. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the field of judicial review, which pits individuals against the government. “The procedure for this was promulgated in 1989,” Judge Ma said. “The court should review the rules by which government is supposed to behave ... if a government violates some rules when it makes a decision and this decision causes damage to a person, the government should be responsible.”
It may be surprising to note that overseas researchers have found that plaintiffs in administrative law cases in mainland China have a higher rate of success than their counterparts in the US, Japan or Taiwan. Randall Peerenboom, a researcher on the mainland legal system, found plaintiffs on average succeeded in 20 to 40 per cent of cases as opposed to 12 per cent in the US, and 8 per cent for the other two jurisdictions.
“The court will decide if the government should give compensation or should correct its behaviour or make some other remedy,” Judge Ma said. “Before [the Administrative Procedure Law] was promulgated, there was in fact no law to handle these sorts of issues. This law was passed to protect the rights of common people. It is really a big step ahead.”
Such idealism is admirable, but what qualifications do Judge Ma and his colleagues actually need to have?
“To be a judge, it’s very important that you should have a college degree; a bachelor’s degree in law,” he said. “Well, maybe not necessarily in law, but you should have a bachelor’s degree. Then you should pass the judicial examination.
“Only about a tenth of those who try it pass it - but it is very important. Then if you pass that and you want to work in the court, you have to sit another examination: the entrance examination for the civil service. Then there is an interview with the personnel office, and different levels of court have different experience.”
Of course, he said, prospective judges do not just sit a couple of exams before taking the rights, economic interests and even lives of strangers into their hands. “At first when you work in court, you cannot work as a judge. You must be a court clerk for at least one year, but for most courts it is much longer.
“Very likely it will be more. Higher courts [require] at least two years,” pipes in Angie Yuan Jing, who is a judge in the research section of the Beijing Chaoyang District Basic People’s Court. “My roommate [in Hong Kong] has acted as a clerk for at least five or seven years. It depends on your ability and how hard you work. It’s not easy.”
One of the reasons for the relative youth of the mainland’s new crop of judges is that the legal system has been expanding rapidly in recent years.
Judge Yan noted the hiring of scores of new judges to oversee the Supreme People’s Court’s two-year-old supervisory role for approving death sentences.
“Especially for dealing with the death penalty, we have established an entirely new division to deal with those cases,” she said. “Maybe two years ago the High People’s Court had the power to approve the death penalty, but now only the Supreme People’s Court can do it. So that court alone has recruited hundreds of judges.
“This is an important job, dealing with a person’s life. I think it also reflects that the country is very serious about human rights.”
Judge Yuan believed that regardless of where they operated and their age, judges were, at their core, very much alike.
“I think the motive to become a judge is very much the same as the judges of anywhere else. We are all interested in justice.”
Judge Yan agreed.
“I think a judge is respected in China no matter whether they are young or old, experienced or inexperienced. You are the one who makes the decision. Of course we don’t do this for the money. I really enjoy the law and want to be just and fair in every case. Maybe we are the new generation and we really want to do things with our cases to make things better,” she said.
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Age no barrier for young judges on mainland
Jurists as young as 30 share their view of an improving legal system
Nick Gentle
15 February 2009
Maybe you could look at us as a new generation, certainly we are younger,” says 30-year-old Molly Yan Wei. While 30 may not seem young, it is when you consider that she was appointed a judge of the Hunan High People’s Court three years ago, at age 27.
“I think we are very lucky in China that we don’t need to wait many, many years and then become a judge,” said Judge Yan, who now sits in the appellate court dealing with intellectual property cases. “We can just start learning from the very beginning and have a very long career.”
For those immersed in the legal traditions of the west, where becoming a judge entails spending time as a practising lawyer before taking a pay cut to sit on the bench, the idea of an appeals court judge in their 30s is odd, to say the least.
But for Judge Yan and her mainland colleagues (the oldest of whom is 46) who are in Hong Kong to study at City University, the idea of a judge in their 60s does not make sense either.
“In China, we have 1.3 billion people, so there are many, many cases,” said Stony Ma Xuetao, a 33-year-old judge in the administrative law division of the Hainan High People’s Court. “Perhaps for a judge over 60 or 70 years old, I think he probably cannot deal with this volume.”
His speciality is judicial review, a burgeoning area of practice in the mainland, where it is increasingly being used to counter actions by local or provincial governments.
Judge Ma said the legal system and legal environment in China had improved. He said the mainland’s accession to the World Trade Organisation had forced great changes to the judicial system, which in the past had been criticised as being merely an extension of the central government and a retirement scheme for People’s Liberation Army officers and party faithful.
But it has been acknowledged that great strides have been taken, particularly in the past two decades, to increase the independence of the judiciary. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the field of judicial review, which pits individuals against the government. “The procedure for this was promulgated in 1989,” Judge Ma said. “The court should review the rules by which government is supposed to behave ... if a government violates some rules when it makes a decision and this decision causes damage to a person, the government should be responsible.”
It may be surprising to note that overseas researchers have found that plaintiffs in administrative law cases in mainland China have a higher rate of success than their counterparts in the US, Japan or Taiwan. Randall Peerenboom, a researcher on the mainland legal system, found plaintiffs on average succeeded in 20 to 40 per cent of cases as opposed to 12 per cent in the US, and 8 per cent for the other two jurisdictions.
“The court will decide if the government should give compensation or should correct its behaviour or make some other remedy,” Judge Ma said. “Before [the Administrative Procedure Law] was promulgated, there was in fact no law to handle these sorts of issues. This law was passed to protect the rights of common people. It is really a big step ahead.”
Such idealism is admirable, but what qualifications do Judge Ma and his colleagues actually need to have?
“To be a judge, it’s very important that you should have a college degree; a bachelor’s degree in law,” he said. “Well, maybe not necessarily in law, but you should have a bachelor’s degree. Then you should pass the judicial examination.
“Only about a tenth of those who try it pass it - but it is very important. Then if you pass that and you want to work in the court, you have to sit another examination: the entrance examination for the civil service. Then there is an interview with the personnel office, and different levels of court have different experience.”
Of course, he said, prospective judges do not just sit a couple of exams before taking the rights, economic interests and even lives of strangers into their hands. “At first when you work in court, you cannot work as a judge. You must be a court clerk for at least one year, but for most courts it is much longer.
“Very likely it will be more. Higher courts [require] at least two years,” pipes in Angie Yuan Jing, who is a judge in the research section of the Beijing Chaoyang District Basic People’s Court. “My roommate [in Hong Kong] has acted as a clerk for at least five or seven years. It depends on your ability and how hard you work. It’s not easy.”
One of the reasons for the relative youth of the mainland’s new crop of judges is that the legal system has been expanding rapidly in recent years.
Judge Yan noted the hiring of scores of new judges to oversee the Supreme People’s Court’s two-year-old supervisory role for approving death sentences.
“Especially for dealing with the death penalty, we have established an entirely new division to deal with those cases,” she said. “Maybe two years ago the High People’s Court had the power to approve the death penalty, but now only the Supreme People’s Court can do it. So that court alone has recruited hundreds of judges.
“This is an important job, dealing with a person’s life. I think it also reflects that the country is very serious about human rights.”
Judge Yuan believed that regardless of where they operated and their age, judges were, at their core, very much alike.
“I think the motive to become a judge is very much the same as the judges of anywhere else. We are all interested in justice.”
Judge Yan agreed.
“I think a judge is respected in China no matter whether they are young or old, experienced or inexperienced. You are the one who makes the decision. Of course we don’t do this for the money. I really enjoy the law and want to be just and fair in every case. Maybe we are the new generation and we really want to do things with our cases to make things better,” she said.
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