More resources and assistance needed to train specialized legal talent
China’s cultivation of interdisciplinary talent should be the top priority if it wants to improve international commercial negotiations and solve related disputes, according to legal and economic specialists.
“Talent is the core competence, especially after our country introduced the Belt and Road Initiative and participated in more economic activities in the world,” said Zhang Yuejiao, a former judge with the World Trade Organization’s appellate body.
She said that the nation’s efforts in talent cultivation is not enough, even though it has realized the importance of educating talent.
“Professionals with language skills and good legal and economic knowledge are in huge and urgent demand,” she said.
It is good to see more Chinese learn and speak several foreign languages, but Zhang noted that the key in international commercial negotiations and solving related disputes is the flexible use of language rather than just simple translations. “To reach the goal, training on China’s history and developments, international relations and politics as well as domestic laws and international conventions is a must in talent education,” she said.
In addition, knowledge of intellectual property and information of new technologies should be emphasized, as these are hot topics in international investment and trade, Zhang added. Considering the talent gap, Zhang who is also a professor at Tsinghua University, said she would invest more of her time in educating talent this year.
However, Zhang said talent cultivation cannot rely on her efforts alone, and called for Chinese legal or economic institutes to offer more opportunities to those willing to engage in international commercial negotiations and put their knowledge into practice.
The China Law Society has been paying attention to this issue. It has helped legal and economic professionals from home and abroad to increase communication platforms in recent years.
It held a seminar in Beijing for judicial specialists and investors from China and Africa in 2017, aimed at providing them with a platform to know more about the legal systems in both countries and how to prevent legal risks ahead of investments.
“Such information for our talent to understand more about foreign nations will be further improved in our following events,” said Chen Jiping, a top official of the society, at a meeting last year.
Chen highlighted talent education during the meeting, and added that this will be essential in building the country by rule of the law.
In June, the Supreme People’s Court set up two courts specializing in handling international commercial disputes in Shenzhen in Guangdong province and Xi’an in Shaanxi province. Two months later, the top court named 32 experts including Zhang to be the first members of a think tank, known as the International Commercial Expert Committee, for the two specialized courts.