This story from the Guangzhou Daily (24/2/05) was reposted at the 世纪沙龙 forums with an approving title encouraging readers to sign up for duty. It appears Guangzhou is the first city in China to start using the new jury system which was announced late last year.

Guangzhou People’s Courts are recruiting jurors

The public selection of people’s jurors has begun this month in Guangzhou. However, due to widespread misunderstanding of the nature of jury work, with some people even concerned that juries will be serving only a merely decorative function in the courts, to date there has not been a rush to sign up for duty. Yesterday Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, through the pages of this paper, called on city residents to come forward, welcoming more of them to sign up as ‘judges without official robes’.

Juries will begin hearing cases in May

Wu Yaoguang (邬耀广), Director of the Research Office at Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court outlined the schedule the courts at both two levels in the city have set out for the selection of jurors: sign-ups are open from the 1st of February through to the 1st of March; checks on eligibility will be completed before the 10th of March; the list of prospective jurors will be published in a pre-appointment consultation phase which will be completed prior to the 20th of March; training of jurors will be completed by the 30th of March and from the 1st of May they will begin work hearing cases.

Both levels of People’s Court in the city are currently engaged in selection work, which is presently still at the stage of inviting sign-ups. Citizens who meet the conditions for jury service can be recommended by their work unit or the grassroots-level organisations in their registered place of residence, or they can come forward to register for duty themselves.

The conditions for eligibility to serve as a juror are set out in Article 4 of the ‘Decision Concerning the Betterment of the People’s Jury System’. A juror must meet the following 5 conditions: 1. uphold the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China; 2. at least 23 years of age; 3. of good behaviour and upright social morality; 4. in good physical health; 5. having attained professional training college or higher education. Members of the NPC Standing Committee; officers of the Courts, Procuratorate, Police or Security Organs; staff of the judicial administration and practising lawyers are ineligible for service.

Juror’s term of service is five years

So by what process will the Lower People’s Courts confirm the selection of jurors? We were told that the names of persons meeting the above requirements will be reported in the first instance to the Lower People’s Court serving their place of residence. They will, together with district Department of Justice, carry out checks of potential jurors. The Head of the Lower Court will bring forward a list of prospective jurors and ask the Standing Committee of the NPC at the equivalent level to make the appointments. There will be an appropriate consultation process in a suitable arena between the proposal of names and the final confirmation of appointment. The relevant regulations set a juror’s term of service as five years.

There was some enthusiasm in the follow-up posting on the forum, but also what I presume was the sarcastic question ‘Will I have to pay?’ A more substantive objection was raised that the appointment of jurors for a five year term of service meant jury duty was being made an arm of the State system and only a fool (to bowdlerise the actual expression) would do it.

I was surprised at the requirement that jurors need to be physically healthy, and I suspect this will exclude disabled citizens. The educational requirements seem excessive too.

In terms of translation there were two interesting points for me: 有人甚至担心陪审员会不会成为”陪衬员” is a neat pun in Chinese which I couldn’t see how to render so settled on ‘a merely decorative function’ to describe people’s fears that juries will be ineffectual . That is an educated guess and I’d welcome corrections if anyone disagrees.
Also I’d not heard of 任前公示, but Google turned up various regulations, announcements and even what appeared to be a dedicated site [I’ve snipped a dead link there] that made clear what was going on. I’ve called it a ‘consultation process’ but that might be misleading. It appears to be a period of time when some basic personal information about prospective (usually) officials is published, either internally within a work unit or department or (as I am presuming here) more widely, and anyone who objects to them getting their new job has an opportunity to say so. A bit like publishing the banns before marriage.

The Chinese text of the main article follows. Increase text size in your browser settings or cut and paste it to make it legible.

广州市两级法院招收人民陪审员

2005年02月24日 10:19 　　来源: 广州日报

　　本报讯　（记者刘海健　通讯员穗法宣）广州从本月开始开展人民陪审员社会公开选任工作。但由于社会各界对陪审员的工作性质不太了解，有人甚至担心陪审员会不会成为“陪衬员”，广州市目前报名的情况并不乐观。广州市中级人民法院昨天通过本报向社会呼吁，欢迎更多的市民报名参与，做一名不穿法袍的”法官”。

　　陪审员五月起参与陪审工作

　　广州市中级人民法院研究室主任邬耀广向记者介绍，广州两级法院选任人民陪审员工作的时间安排大致是这样：2月1日至3月1日是报名阶段；3月10日前完成资格审查；3月20日前完成任前公示；4月30日前完成培训工作；5月1日起可以上岗参与案件的陪审工作。

　　目前，广州二级法院都在进行人民陪审员选任工作，现在正是处于接受报名的阶段，符合担任人民陪审员条件的公民，可以由其所在单位或者户籍所在地的基层组织向人民法院推荐或者本人提出申请。

　　要具备什么条件才能成为人民陪审员，根据《关于完善人民陪审员制度的决定》第四条的规定，具备以下五项条件可以担任人民陪审员：（一）拥护中华人民共和国宪法；（二）年满二十三周岁；（三）品行良好、公道正派；（四）身体健康；（五）具有大学专科以上文化程度。但如果是人大常委会的组成人员，人民法院、人民检察院、公安机关、国家安全机关、司法行政机关的工作人员和执业律师等人员，根据规定，不得担任人民陪审员。《决定》第六条还规定，因犯罪受过刑事处罚的和被开除公职的人员不得担任人民陪审员。

　　人民陪审员任期为五年

　　那么，基层人民法院如何确定人民陪审员的人选呢？据介绍，如果符合上述担任人民陪审员条件的，可以到所在地的基层人民法院报名。基层人民法院将会同区（市）司法局进行审查，并由基层人民法院院长提出人民陪审员人选，提请同级人民代表大会常务委员会任命。在人选确定后，在提请同级人大常委会任命前，法院会用适当的形式，在一定场合公示。根据《规定》第九条的规定，人民陪审员的任期为五年。

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