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As China's economy continues to grow and globalize, the legal community has come to realize that the country's body of laws also needs updating and globalizing. In some situations, China's laws are outdated or even absent.

Thus the country has begun sending judges and prosecutors overseas for legal training along with lawmakers to help raise China's legislation and law enforcement up to international standards.

Shen Xiaojie, a district-level prosecutor in his 20s from Shenyang, Liaoning Province in northeast China, was one of them.

After studying for 15 months in a program offered jointly by Temple and Tsinghua Universities, he received a Master of Law (LL.M.) degree from Temple in October.

Shen and his classmates studied at Temple's main campus, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for two months. During the 13 remaining months, they attended Tsinghua in Beijing, where they were taught by teachers from Temple's Beasley School of Law.

"A scholar once said that in the legal field, globalization is Americanization to a large extent, so we have to learn from the United States," Shen said, referring to both knowledge and the way of thinking.

For example, courts in some regions across China have begun introducing plea bargaining between the prosecutor and criminal defendant, a procedure learnt from the Anglo-American legal system, Shen said.

"Through systematic study, I know how plea bargaining is conducted in the United States and how the system balances the interests of various parties," he said.

What he learnt in the United States will help him deal with some future reform measures, Shen said, but principles related to China's legal code cannot be altered solely through judicial reform.

"Learning from overseas will help China grow stronger," Shen said.

Shen and the other judges and prosecutors, who accounted for half of the student total, did not pay the US$18,000 tuition. These came through donations, according to Adelaide Ferguson, Temple's assistant vice-president for international programmes.

Yuan Duoran, a civil and commercial judge from the Supreme People's Court who participated in Temple's program in 2000, said he learnt things that he direct applies in his work now. "China's civil and commercial law system and practices gained much from the US in the field of Securities Law, Corporation Law and Trust Law," he said.

In fact, in the continental legal system, which China has traditionally followed, there is no trust law, Yuan said: "Thus China's legislation governing the issue was adapted from Anglo-American countries, mainly Britain and the United States."

Another benefit: Yuan said his spoken and written English, which he used to search for information, was enhanced considerably.

Wang Chenguang, Dean of the Tsinghua University Law School, said sending judges and prosecutors to receive legal education in the United States was significant.

"With the deepening of China's reform and opening-up, Sino-foreign economic collaboration is evident, and legal relations should be strengthened, as well," he said, as foreign investors and businessmen in China need legal guarantees.

Some practices in China are sub-par against international standards, he said. Judges, prosecutors and lawyers need to know more about foreign legal systems, especially in the area of economic law, such as trade rules and World Trade Organization rules.

"We must train professionals to be familiar with both China's law and foreign systems," Wang said.

But that doesn't mean that China needs to imitate the Western legal system, Wang said.

"Although it needs to be reformed, China's judicial system basically suits the country's condition," he said.

Wang stressed that as Chinese society varies from Western countries, the Chinese judicial system cannot be expected to be a copycat of theirs. Even so, Wang stressed the necessity for Sino-foreign cooperation.

"The influence of globalization goes far beyond the economic field," Wang said, noting that, for example, cooperation between China and other countries on extraditing Chinese fugitive officials charged with corruption is strengthening. We learnt the principles of presumption of innocence in the criminal code and human rights guarantees in the Constitution from successful experiences overseas.”

(China Daily December 22, 2006)