China’s top justice Zhou Qiang and his counterpart, Bettina Limperg, president of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, discussed judicial reform, judicial openness and other topics and reached a consensus on a judge exchange program at a symposium in Beijing, Dec 9-10.

More than 80 officials and judges from China and Germany participated in the event, where the two sides agreed on seven points, as follows:

First, both China and Germany are countries with written laws and share similar sources of legal traditions; as a result, it is desirable for the two countries to share each other’s experience and practice in judicial matters and use them to improve their respective judicial systems and practices on the basis of national conditions.

Second, in accordance with the requirements of the Action Outline for China-Germany Cooperation: Co-shape Innovation, the two sides called for mutual diversified exchanges and training programs among people in the legal profession, and particularly among judges, so as to improve their judicial competence.

Third, the symposium, which arose from a 15-year history of state-level dialogue on rule of law between the two countries, reviewed the progress of a China-Germany judge exchange program over the past five years. The meeting also actively carried out the Action Outline for China-Germany Cooperation: Co-shape Innovation, signed last year.

Fourth, since the launch of a judge exchange program between China and Germany in 2010, judicial exchange has expanded to five pairs of partner courts in the two countries: the higher people’s courts of Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Shaanxi province, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Henan province, and Hainan province, and their German equivalents - the high courts of justice in the states of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Saxony, Berlin Brandenburg, Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria. The participants all spoke highly of the achievements in the program and said that their joint efforts had enhanced understanding and friendship between Chinese and German judges and improving the judicial capacities of both countries.

Fifth, both China and Germany appreciated the active participation of the two countries’ courts and judges, and the support from their governmental departments. They considered it essential that courts on both sides continue to carry out in-depth exchange and promote the program to more Chinese provinces and German states. Attendees at the symposium also expected that the sponsor of the program, Bosch Stiftung, and the parties involved would continue to work together to expand and develop through better planning and continuous effort.

Sixth, Zhou Qiang and Bettina Limperg appraised the judge exchange program and provided specific suggestions and advice for future communication and cooperation. The attendees thanked Zhou Qiang and Bettina Limperg for their helpful suggestions.

Seventh, the attendees spoke highly of Bosch Stiftung for its great contribution in judicial exchange and cooperation between China and Germany, and expressed their gratitude to the foreign affairs bureau of China’s Supreme People’s Court and to German international cooperation organizations.

The event was held to mark the fifth anniversary of a judge exchange program between China and Germany.