Chinese Mediators Ordered to Pass TestOver 100,000 grassroots legal service workers engaged in mediation and legal affairs in China's rural areas were ordered December 24 to take their first ever national examination of professional qualification."This measure is meant to standardize the practices of legal services at grassroots levels, especially in the countryside," said Duan Zhengkun, vice-minister of justice, when inspecting the examination sites in Beijing. The grassroots legal service system was first created in China in the early 1980's. Most of the staff were former judges, prosecutors and police officers, as well as local figures with relatively high legal knowledge. This system will continue to exist because the nation is still short of legal professionals, the vice-minister said. There are 120,000 employees in this field, and 104,000 of them took the test today. New recruits shall be admitted only after they pass such national examinations. |
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