Experiencing China again for the first time
By Willis P. Whichard Special to the Smoky Mountain Sentinel

Editor's note-Willis (Bill) Whichard is a former member of the North Carolina State Senate, a former Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and has recently retired as Dean of the Law School at Campbell University. He and his wife Leona are part-time residents of Clay County. A report of his trip to China is being published as a 12-part series in the Sentinel.

Part VIII -Explaining our legal system

The following morning we met with administrators, faculty and students at the Guangxi Normal university Department of Law in Guilin. The dean, Mr. Chou, presided. As the U.S. delegation walked into the packed lecture hall, we were greeted with a resounding ovation.

The dean noted that the event was listed as a seminar for their law students to learn about American legal education and legal practice. The American delegates, in turn, had an interest in the Rule of Law in China and in learning about the Chinese legal system.

Dean Chou explained that there have been dramatic recent changes in the legal system in China. There are new laws every year. Justice agencies are being established and improved every day. laws once were not enforced, but that is changing.

There are, he said, 400 law schools in China and 600 universities offering some law programs. In 1992 Guangxi began offering a law degree on the bachelor's level. In 2000 it started a master's degree in law program. there are 800 students in the four-year bachelor's degree program and 160 stu- dents in the three-year master's degree program.

As the recently retired Dean of an American law school, I had the speaking role in introducing our hosts to American legal education. I began with a brief reference to the early history of our country when an aspiring lawyer learned under someone already in the profession. I used as an example Bushrod Washington, George Washington's favorite nephew who, following his famous uncle's advice, studied law under James Wilson in Philadelphia. When Wilson later died while serving on the U.S. Supreme Court, President John Adams appointed Bushrod Washington to succeed him. The pupil thus replaced the teacher on the nation's highest court.

I proceeded to note that this apprenticeship style of learning law had since ceased. Today U.S. students first obtain a four-year undergraduate degree and then go to a three-year program in a law school. There are 190 American law schools accredited by the American Bar Association's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as the accrediting agency for law schools. The admissions process is very competitive. During my tenure as Dean of Campbell Law School, we rejected approximately ten applicants for each one we accepted.

The three-year course of study in American law schools was my next topic. I noted that following a set first-year curriculum, which is which is identical or almost so throughout the country, in many law schools the only other required course is one in legal ethics. This is a relatively recent phenomenon and a byproduct of the Watergate scandal which led to the disbarment of so many American lawyers.

U.S. law school faculties, I said, consist of full-time legal academics and some practicing lawyers and judges who teach as adjuncts. There are both substantive and clinical courses. Many law students undertake internships with law firms, courts and other government entities in the summers. At the conclusion of their three years of study, they must pass a comprehensive bar examination to be admitted to the practice of law.

I concluded by discussing the fact that most, if not all, American law schools have a placement office which assists their graduates in finding good employment opportunities. I learned later that this concept was foreign to them and they might well adopt it. Finally, I noted that many U.S. law students graduate with extensive debt, and that this can restrict their employment options to the private sector.

Stephen Zack then made our delegation's presentation on law practice in America. Having him make one of our two presentations was particularly significant for two reasons. First, the Rule of Law in America is especially meaningful to him because he came to the U.S. as a boy of 14 in 1961 when the Castro government in Cuba seized his family's business. Second, he rose from that immigrant status to be one of the lawyers for Vice President Al Gore in the well-known 2000 case of Bush v. Gore.

Steve quoted Alexis de Tocqueville , the French aristocrat who wrote the classic treatise Democracy in America in 1840. De Tocqueville concluded from his studies and travels that the legal profession would have a special place in America. Before the American Revolution, we had a king or queenp; after the Revolution, the rights belonged to the people.

Zach continued as follows:

The U.S. Constitution establishes three branches of the American Government: executive, legislative and judicial. If there is a disagreement among the three branches, the judiciary-a branch that has no army and no treasury-makes the final decision. It has to rely on the good will of the people to enforce its judgements.

The independence of the judiciary is paramout. The independent judiciary applies the Rule of Law to all people. In our system the right to be a lawyer is very important.

Our delegation was representing the American Bar Association, which consists of 500,000 American lawyers. It is a voluntary bar with one goal-to defend liberty and pursue justice. The ABA also promotes the Rule of Law around the world.

As a lawyer in Bush v. Gore, he knew from the outset that the American people would accept the final decision of the judiciary no matter what the outcome. In America, all persons coming before a court of law are treated the same no matter what their status.

The question and answer session that followed was interesting and at times provocative. An audience member asked me how we could find value in the American legal system when there are so many murders in our country. The essence of my response was that, like all others, the American legal system is not perfect and does not cure all the ills of human society. Its glory, however, is adherence to the concept of equal justice under law: we attempt to give even the poorest citizens equal access to lawyers and to the law.

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