Law experts and professionals in certain fields, who have been
working for 20 years, may get the lawyer's license without
examination, according to a draft amendment to the Law on
Lawyers.
The draft amendment was submitted to the week-long 29th session
of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC),
or China's top legislature, for a second reading on Friday.
The draft states that "experts with a bachelor's degree or
higher, who have been engaged in law research and education for 20
years, or professionals who have been working in finance,
intellectual property rights and information technology sectors for
20 years, can apply for the lawyer's license without
examination."
"They can get the license after being approved by relevant
departments under the State Council," the draft amendment said.
Other people who want to get the license have to pass the
National Judicial Examination, a national uniform qualification
examination held by China's Ministry of Justice, according to the
draft.
During the first reading of the draft in June, some members of
the NPC Standing Committee suggested to delete the item with the
concerns that it would be unfair and affect the quality of lawyers
by allowing a part of people to get the qualification without
examination, according to Wang Yiming, deputy director of the NPC
Law Committee.
However, the committee kept the item after discussion.
Wang said it would help relieve China's current shortage of
lawyers with background in some special fields such as finance,
intellectual property right and information technology, by allowing
the experts and senior professionals to work as lawyers in those
fields.
He said there were similar regulations in Japan, Singapore, the
Republic of Korea and Canada.
Statistics showed that China now has more than 130,000 lawyers
working in 13,000 law firms. In 2006 alone, Chinese lawyers dealt
with more than 1.8 million litigation cases and 1.15 million
non-litigation cases and provided legal aid in more than 5.2
million cases.
The Law on Lawyers took effect on Jan. 1, 1997. It is the first
revision to the law since its promulgation.
(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2007)