Zhang Jun, minister of justice
Zhang Jun, minister of justice and Xiong Xuanguo, vice-minister of justice sought the advice of legal experts on judicial administration in the Ministry of Justice on August 11.
The eleven scholars and experts, consultants of public security, and members of procuratorial organs and people's courts who were present at the meeting have all witnessed China's judicial system reform and many of them have participated in central and local research demonstrations.
Xiong Xuanguo, vice-minister of justice
Zhang expressed his hope that the scholars would not hesitate to speak out freely in offering their advice.
Law professor Fan Chongyi called for the establishment of a judicial administrative theory seminar and advised the Ministry of Justice to set up an expert consultation committee.
In addition to Fan, the seminar also featured other experts who specialize in criminal procedure law. They also expressed their opinions in detail. One of them, Chen Ruihao, said that the speed of judicial administration reform is relatively slow which gave rise to some discussion among the participants.
The only representative of criminal jurisprudence, Zhao Bingzhi said his team has studied the Opinions of the Ministry of Justice on Furthering Deepening Judicial Reform (Discussion Paper) and that the paper indicates the direction of top-level thinking about judicial administration work.
Zhao said that it also lists how every task can be carried out and sets out specific aspects of the reform at the micro-level, responding to common social concerns and questions relevant to social development.
Han Dayuan, a constitutional scholar, referred frequently to the Opinions paper. He said it provides not only specific job objectives but also concrete supporting measures. What pleased him most is that the Opinions stipulate that legal education is to be included in the national educational system.
Ma Huaide, another legal expert, resonated with Han, advising use of social evaluation and a sense of power levels in society to promote awareness of the law.
Zhang Jun concluded the symposium by saying that the experts and scholars had successfully presented a course on the theory of socialist rule of law.
Zhang said that they should work to promote theoretical innovation based on practice, adding that some theories could be borrowed from abroad instead of being used directly because of uniqueness of China’s judicial administration reform.
Fan Chongyi, legal expert
Zhao Bingzhi, legal expert