Five days of legal training began for 236 people's jurors on April 11 in Guangzhou. They are the first group of 1,237 people's jurors in south China's Guangdong Province who will begin to sit on cases from May 1.

The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court started selecting the jurors at the end of last year according to a notice issued by the Supreme People's Court and Ministry of Justice.

The first 236 people's jurors were selected according to population and court caseloads in 12 districts and counties in Guangzhou. They are workers, freelancers, entrepreneurs, public servants and retirees. After nomination, they were approved by local legislatures and will be subject to public examination before they take up their posts.

The other 1,001 Guangdong Province people's jurors will have their training in the cities of Shenzhen, Foshan, Zhuhai, Meizhou, Zhanjiang, Zhaoqing, Shantou and Shaoguan.

The courses they will attend include vocational ethics as well as criminal, civil and administrative law. All the jurors will serve five-year terms of office.

Starting next year, expenses for the people's jurors will be included in local courts' annual budgets.

People's jurors enjoy the same rights and have the same responsibilities as professional judges in court hearings. Chief Justice Wu Shujian of the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court said, "People's jurors from various social strata have rich experience and know public opinion very well. They hear the cases as common citizens and complement the judges' techniques with the public conscience, which keeps the judges fair and reasonable. It also helps to build a clean and fair judicial system."

China currently has about 24,000 people's jurors, but none have been chosen through an election process. Some 41.5 percent were handpicked by a people's court and 23.7 percent were approved by court officials after being recommended by local authorities.

Slightly more than 47.0 percent were educated at college level or above, and 27.2 attended high school.

(Times Daily, China.org.cn April 13, 2005)