It was one of the incredible days for international students of Xiamen University Law School as we visited the Jimei Court and Tenet & Partners Law Firm on the 30th of November 2017. The day began with the visit to the Jimei Court where we were privileged to have two legal clerks, Assistant Judge Li Xiafei and Miss Liu Xiaoshuang who took us through the procedure for filing cases and also around the various court rooms. There we had the opportunity to see the juvenile court room and the criminal court room. We also visited the court library where we were educated on the difference between the civil and common law systems. Normally as common law system dwells on case laws to decide cases hence the stock of many books in court libraries, the same cannot be said of the civil law system where there exist few books at the library. We also witnessed how technology has advanced in the Chinese court system with few paper procedures. We finally had the privilege to meet with one of the judges of the court, Judge Li Chen who answered questions which were baffling our minds. This helped us to know the practical knowledge and experience of the civil law regime and the Chinese legal system.
We were honored to visit the largest law firm in Fujian Province which is Tenet & Partners. We were taken through the routine of the law firm in helping their clients. We also saw one of the few machines in China for filing a case electronically without going through any stress. We were shown the various offices helping us to see the various awards the law firm had received through their hard work. We also saw the picture of the 1,000,000rmb they donated to Xiamen University and their good relation with the Navy. At the end of the tour, the senior partners met with us to deliberate on the concept of the firm and the kinds of cases and fields of law they engage in. We also introduced ourselves which helped the firm to get to know how Xiamen University Law School is going global with different students from all over the world.
By Akosua Serwaah ( Secretary – International Students Union)
