Selection and Appointment of Judges
　
　
　Compared with other reforms, prominent achievement has been made in the reform of the system of selection and appointment of judges. Raising the standard for the selection and appointment of judges is also an issue on which it is easy to reach social consensus. Although people have different opinions on issues such as the mode of exercising judicial power and ways of achieving non-administrative management of the court, there is no major controversy over the demand that judges should possess high qualifications. This, of course, has its historical background. For the past 40 years beginning from the 1950s, there were no clear requirements as to the educational background and professional knowledge for the selection and appointment of judges. This resulted in general low levels of education and lack of professional knowledge among judicial officials.7 It was not until 1995 that the “Judges Law of the People’s Republic of China,” adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, clearly provided that judges must be graduates from colleges or universities. At that time, the so-called colleges and universities included colleges institutes for three years of professional training (three years). A few short years after promulgation of the lLaw, public dissatisfaction with and expectation of the judges had increased. Meanwhile, more and more people had realized that judicial fairness would be an empty word without a contingent of high quality judges. Especially, the increase of complexity of the cases handled by the courts required judges to have the ability to make reasonable judgement on complex social affairs. In view of the above facts, in June 2001 the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress revised the Judges Law. The new lLlaw raised the minimum academic qualification of judges from a 3-year graduate from a vocational college, to a 4-year graduate from regular college or university. Article 9 (6) of the lLaw provides that a judge must possess the following academic qualifications: “to have engaged in the legal work for at least two years in the case of graduates of law major of colleges or universities or from non-law majors of colleges or universities but possessing the professional knowledge of law, and among whom those to assume the posts of judges of higher people’s courts and of the Supreme People’s Court shall have engaged in the legal work for at least three years; or to have engaged in the legal work for at least one year in the case of those who have Master’s Degree of Law or Doctor’s Degree of Law, or those who have Master’s Degree or Doctor’s Degree of non-law majors but possess the professional knowledge of law, and among whom those to assume the posts of judges of higher people’s courts or of the Supreme People’s Court shall have engaged in the legal work for at least two years.” However, the lLaw has left some space for adaptation under certain circumstances: “…...for the places where it is really difficult to gain academic qualification, after being examined and determined by the Supreme People’s Court, the academic qualification for judges may be eased for a specific period as three-year graduates of law major of colleges and universities.”

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