Japan's national unified judicial examination is open to all members of society, regardless of education, experience and age. Only those who pass the judicial examination are eligible to participate in judicial training for two years as judicial interns (1998 changed to one and a half years later). These two systems ensure that all kinds of talents from all walks of life are transported to the ranks of lawyers.
Japan's judicial examination has always been known for its strictness. For decades, the number of qualified people has been limited to about 500 each year, and the passing rate has remained at around 2%. In recent years, the number of qualified lawyers has increased to 65,438+0,000 due to the increasing calls for increasing the number of lawyers, but it is still a drop in the bucket for as many as 25,000 to 30,000 candidates every year. The average age of passing the judicial examination is 28. In this way, it takes an average of six years to review after graduating from college, and only a few people can become outstanding in the fierce examination competition.
The Institute of Justice, affiliated to the Supreme Court of Japan, is the main base for vocational training of Japanese jurists. In judicial training, judicial trainees mainly study five applied disciplines such as civil trial, criminal trial, civil defense, criminal defense and procuratorial work, as well as general courses. The police instructors in the training college are experts from all walks of life, such as judges, prosecutors and lawyers. Among them, judges and prosecutors who serve as instructors should completely leave their current posts and become full-time instructors of judicial research institutes.
Judicial training is divided into three stages. The first stage is called "preview". Since April of that year, trainees from all over the country have been concentrated in the Judicial Research Institute in Hotan City, Qique County. In the second stage, from July, it took 1 year to send trainees to the criminal department, civil affairs department, procuratorate and law society of the court for practical experience and study (3 months each). In the third stage, starting from July of the following year, I will return to judicial training for a three-month "post-study".
In the judicial research institute, the teaching methods generally adopted are completely different from those in universities. The focus is on cultivating and training the ability of judicial interns to deal with various practical legal problems. The general teaching method is to let the judicial trainees read the records of previous cases, study cases, practice drafting judicial documents such as judgments and prosecutors' investigation books, study and discuss the main problems in the interpretation and application of Japanese laws, and finally make comments by instructors.
After a year and a half of study, judicial interns must pass the exam before they can graduate. However, this exam is not as difficult as the previous judicial exam, and basically everyone can pass it. After graduation, about one-fifth of judicial interns were appointed as judges or prosecutors, and most of the rest became lawyers. Therefore, judges, prosecutors and lawyers in Japan generally not only received four years' systematic education for law undergraduates, but also passed the judicial examination, and then received one and a half years' vocational training, which is quite different from the teaching methods of university law schools. In this way, at least on the basis of academic qualifications, judges, prosecutors and lawyers are guaranteed to have higher professional qualifications.
In the past few years, the call for a substantial increase in the number of practicing lawyers has been increasing. Some people suggested that the number of people who passed the judicial examination should be increased from 1000 to 3,000. To this end, it is planned to establish a new lawyer training system, set up a law and science college and train judges, prosecutors and lawyers. On April 24th, 20001year, the judicial system reform review meeting made a decision: the Academy of Law will be completed in 2004, and 3,000 people who have passed the judicial examination will be trained every year, and this goal will be achieved within 10 to 15 years. However, before 20 10, as a transitional measure, the current judicial examination will still be retained.