Thanks to Lan Rongjie of the Temple University Law School in the USA who spotted and blogged this very interesting snippet of information via the China Law Discussion list.
China’s Southern Weekend (南方周末): http://www.infzm.com/content/23663/0 reports
4040 PLA veterans, who have been recently hired by courts, procuratorates, and PSBs in most under-developed area of western China, are undergoing law school training in China’s several specialized law schools, and are expected to return to the West after graduation.
Most of these veterans are also Party members, and come from the indigent countryside of western China. They are supposedly willing to stay in western China for a long time, where many judges have rushed into big cities for a much more profitable business, left only unqualified judges sitting on the bench.
As before 2003, many PLA veterans were assigned to courts or procuratorates, and became judges or prosecutors within a short time without law school training or any qualification exam. Many scholars, such as He Weifang, used to criticize this vigorously, which probably contributed to an amendment of the Organic Law of Court and Organic Law of Procuratorate in 2003, requiring all fresh judges and prosecutors pass the Uniform Judicial Exam first.
