Brief view on the standardized training of legal practice skills

• Author: WU Jiangshui, MO Gelin
• Pages: 135-166

FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA

VOL. 11 MARCH 2016 NO. 1

DOI 10.3868/s050-005-016-0008-7

ARTICLE

BRIEF VIEW ON THE STANDARDIZED TRAINING OF LEGAL PRACTICE SKILLS

WU Jiangshui*, MO Gelin∗∗

Abstract Because of the massive expansion in enrollment, the number of graduates

from law schools across the country is unprecedented, but the rate of unemployment is

also unprecedented in comparison with the graduation. In stark contrast, many

employees are finding it difficult to find graduates of talent fitting directly to working

requirements. The traditional mode of education is to cultivate students with legal

research abilities, but the main social need calls for graduates who are prepared to

practice, which has caused the low employment. As a result, the graduates’ failure to

meet the social demand caused serious imbalance between supply and demand. The

characteristic of legal practice skills is to solve practical problems through the practice

of adapting legal knowledge, but practical skill training in law school education now is

basically nonexistent. The training of legal practice skills must be conducted through

aspects of course design, and therefore teaching methods necessitate comprehensive

reformation. The practice skills of the legal profession, such as basic literacy, basic skills,

and work skills, are indispensable to the education of students. Educating them to attain

these skills will aid them directly in practical work after graduation, improve their work

quality and employment rate, and consequently improve the whole overall quality of the

legal profession.

Keywords law school education, legal profession, practical skills, standardized training

I. LAW SCHOOL PREDICAMENT AND GRADUATES’ LACK OF PRACTICAL SKILLS....... 136

A. Law Schools’ Scale and the Status of Education Output.....................................137

1. The Number of Law Schools......................................................................... 137

2. Scale of Graduates......................................................................................... 137

B. The Employment Predicament of Legal Graduates............................................ 138

1. The Employment Rate of Graduates of Law Major....................................... 138

2. Professional Counterpart Rates of Graduates of Law Major .........................138

3. The Characteristics of the Counterpart Jobs.................................................. 140

* (󰤴󰤉) Visiting Professor; Supervisor of Postgraduates and Executive Director of Teaching Guidance

Department, at Lawyer College, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China; Partner of T&C

Shanghai Law Firm. Contact: solothinker@163.com

∗∗ (󲂀󰔑󰑬) Master candidate, at Lawyer College, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China.

Contact: 15210500682@163.com

136 FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA [Vol. 11: 135

C. Demand Imbalance and Lack of Skills Education in Law Schools....................141

1. The Proportion of Practice Education in Law School Education...................141

2. Analysis of Reasons Why Teaching Issues Affect the Employment of Law

School Graduates.......................................................................................... 142

II. LEGAL PRACTICE SKILLS TRAINING URGENTLY NEEDED FOR SOCIAL

PROGRESS.............................................................................................................. 144

A. The Legal Practice Education Mode of Developed Countries...........................145

1. The Juris Doctor of the US ...........................................................................145

2. Inns of Court in the UK ................................................................................146

3. The Dual System in Germany....................................................................... 147

4. Legal Graduate School in Japan ...................................................................148

B. The Current System of Legal Professional Education and Social Demand .......149

1. The Ability Training Model of the Current System ...................................... 149

2. The Demand Mode for Abilities of Legal Professionals ...............................151

3. The Shortages of the Current System via Comparison .................................153

C. The Reform Process of Legal Professional Education Now...............................154

1. Undergraduate Teaching Quality and Teaching Reform Project................... 154

2. Excellent Legal Talent Education Program................................................... 155

3. The Deficiency in Current Legal Professional Education Reform ...............155

III. BRIEF VISION OF STANDARDIZED TRAINING OF LEGAL PROFESSIONALS............. 158

A. The Distinction between Training of Practice Skills and Traditional

Theoretical Education.......................................................................................158

1. Curriculum Design ...................................................................................... 158

2. Training Methods......................................................................................... 159

B. The Exploration for Legal Professionals Education System .............................160

1. The Exploration for Adjusting the Syllabus .................................................160

2. The Exploration for Subdividing the Knowledge Points ............................. 161

3. Exploration for Teaching Methods............................................................... 162

4. Exploration for Teaching Staff .....................................................................163

C. Roadmap for Standardized Training of Legal Practice Skills...........................163

1. The Target Model for Standardized Training of Legal Practice Skills......... 164

2. Continuous Improvement and Closed-Loop Management of the

Standardization System ............................................................................... 164

3. Prospects and Significance of Application.................................................. 165

I. LAW SCHOOL PREDICAMENT AND GRADUATES’ LACK OF PRACTICAL SKILLS

Similar to civil law countries, the legal education system in China’s mainland was

born out of the former Soviet Union’s. From the system’s inability to develop along with

the economy and society, there comes a consequent lack of talent in adapting to the

market and a low employment rate in the legal career field.

2016] BRIEF VIEW ON THE STANDARDIZED TRAINING OF LEGAL PRACTICE SKILLS 137

A. Law Schools’ Scale and the Status of Education Output

With the explosive expansion, not only in the size of colleges but also the number

of graduates in the department of law, remains on an incredibly large scale and pace of

development.

1. The Number of Law Schools. — Since last century when universities’ expansion

began, the law department also rapidly expanded both in the size and number. At the end

of 1993, there were 135 law schools, compared with only 2 law schools in 1976.1 At the

end of 2006, the number of universities with law schools for undergraduate degree was

603.2 By November 2009, there were 637 law schools across the country, with 115

permitted to recruit Juris Master ’s postgraduates.3 According to the query result from the

Specified Site for the Incorrupt Recruitment Project by the Ministry of Education4, by 2014,

there were 629 universities for undergraduate law degrees (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Number of Law Schools for Undergraduates in 1976−2014

2. Scale of Graduates. — According to statistics released by the Ministry of

Education, there were 117,900 graduates from law schools in China, including junior,

undergraduate, master, and doctor’s degree, and the number rose to 209,299 in 2012. The

number of graduates of law major reached a peak in 2007 and 2008. However, it still

weighs in undergraduate education as the college level education was gradually replaced

1 The Ministry of Justice and Education, 󰦪󰈮󱶇󱡕 (Brief Report for Legal Education) Supp2,

cited from HU Yaqiu, 󰦪󱇽󰛶󱍙󲺢󰑙 (Reflection and Reconstruction for the

Training Mode of Legal Applied Talents), 1 󰦪󲢙󲢏 (Law Review) 129, (1999).

2 The Information Office of State Council, 󱍙󰦪󰦐󲢓󱍒󱎃 (The White Papers: The Nomocracy

Development in China), at 42 (2008).

3 JI Xiangde, 󰦪󰈮󱶇󱍙󱂅󰾋󰏰 (The Current Situation and Prospect for Legal Education), in LI

Lin eds. 󰦪󰦐 No. 7 (2009) (Annual Report on China’s Rule of Law No. 7 2009), Social Science

Academic Press (China) (Beijing), at 332 (2009).

4 It is available at http://gaokao.chsi.com.cn/zyk/zybk/schools.action?specialityId=73381155&ssdm=

(last visited Mar. 7, 2014).