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Record Number Take China's Annual Bar Exam
A record 215,880 Chinese flocked to classrooms in almost every corner of the nation on Oct.21st to take this year's annual bar examination.
Minister of Justice Gao Changli said here, during an inspection of exam sites, that the number of participants in this year's exam has led to a dramatic increase of 18.6 percent over last year, and stands as the record high since the test was introduced in China in 1986.
"The number of participants have been increasing year by year in the past 15 years, and the popularity for the legal professionis increasingly heating up as always," he said.
Minister Gao attributed the high enthusiasm of the public to the test to three factors:
-- China has constructed a stable and enlightened political environment, and great progress has been made in the quest for democracy and rule of law; and the national campaign to enforce the constitutional principle of the rule of law has enhanced the awareness of the law of the general public;
-- The establishment of the market economic order and plurality of economic entities are spurring demand for legal services; and
-- Lawyers are playing a more important role in society, and the legal profession has become one of the most coveted among the younger generation.
According to the Ministry officials, only 21,500 or 10 percent of the examinees will be granted qualifications for the legal profession.
Participants in the exam are mostly young and college-educated, and this year sees more examinees with better educational backgrounds and in more diverse fields besides law.
Before 1978, lawyers had been barred from practice for 22 years in China. As a result of the bar examinations, China has built a contingent of 120,000 practicing attorneys and more than 9,000 law firms. Some Chinese law firms have also opened branch offices in Hong Kong and foreign countries.
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