The Ministry of Justice introduced the Decision on Establishing Lawyers’ Oath-taking Regime in February and issued a relevant news report on 21 March on its official website.
Chinese lawyers who obtain their certificates for the first time, and those who have successfully renewed their certificates, are required to attend an oath-taking ceremony within three months from the date when they are granted permission to practise.
Included in the oath are the following pledges:
“I volunteer to become a practising lawyer of the People’s Republic of China and promise faithfully to perform the sacred mission of a legal worker in [China’s system of] socialism with Chinese characteristics; to be loyal to the motherland and the people; to uphold the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party; to uphold the socialist system … and diligently strive for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics!”
The ministry’s website stated that the purpose of the decision, among other things, is to lead Chinese lawyers to “firmly establish their belief to become a legal worker for socialism with Chinese characteristics”, and to raise the standards of their professional ethics.
(See I solemnly swear in this issue’s Lexicon)
