Under the guidance of the National Steering Committee for Graduate Education of Law Degrees, the 2022 National Legal Writing Competition for Law Degrees was sponsored by the Law Education Research Association of China Law Society and hosted by Xiamen University School of Law.  

The competition attracted LLMs from more than two hundred universities across China to participate. The preliminary and final rounds were completed by announcing the test questions on the official website and submitting drafts by email, and the final round was conducted online, requiring a legal document to be completed within three hours. In the preliminary round, among 3659 entries, Zhang Xiaohan, who represented our school, entered the final round with the twentieth place, and then advanced to the final round with the third place, and finally won the first prize of the National Law Degree Postgraduate Legal Writing Competition!

After three rounds of competition in the preliminary round, the final round and the final round, two students, Zhang Xiaohan and Bao Placid, were awarded the First Prize in the 2022 National Legal Writing Competition for Law Degree Postgraduates after careful evaluation by the expert jury of the 2022 National Legal Writing Competition for Law Degree Postgraduates.

Five students, namely, Apo Zhuo Lin, Tong Yiyao, Zhong Zi Han, Wang Miao Miao and Wu Dong, won the Second Prize in the 2022 National Legal Writing Competition for Postgraduate Law Degree Students.

Yan Bingyu, Fang Jiaqi, He Yu, Zeng Nan, Li Tingyu, Li Ren and Lu Jiajun won the Third Prize in the 2022 National Legal Writing Competition for Postgraduates in Law.

Zheng Lina, Guan Kai, Xiang Xiaoqian, Shen Yuxuan, Gao Yu, Wang Xuechun, Xu Yutong, Cao Ruonan, Yan Jinfeng, Gongsun Qiuqun, Huang Yongzhen, Zhang Yi, Xiao Ting, Zhang Weidong, Li Haoran, Zhong Xiaoyan 16 students won the Excellence Award of the 2022 National Legal Writing Competition for Postgraduate Law Degrees.

After the evaluation by the organizing committee of the competition, five law schools of China Ocean University, Jilin University, Gannan Normal University, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University of Science and Technology and Hebei University of Economics and Business were awarded the Best Organization Award of the 2022 National Law Writing Competition for Law Degrees.

The lecture series of legal document writing for the competition

Dean Ouyang Benqi attached great importance to the overall planning. In order to help the students prepare for the preliminary round of the 2022 National Law Committee Research Legal Writing Competition, the Law School invited four experts from the practical field to provide guidance to the students before the competition.

April 25 Civil Law Competition Counseling Session

Vice Dean Xiong Zhanglin opened the meeting with a speech, firstly, he briefly explained the basic situation of the competition and the requirements of the competition, secondly, he introduced the experts invited to the competition and thanked them, and finally, he wished the students a good result in the competition. Ms. Ren Danli summarized and reviewed the experience of our students in the legal document competition in previous years, most of our students participated independently in the competition in previous years and failed to achieve a good result.

Mr. Xu Yanyan, a judge of Nanjing Intermediate People's Court, firstly analyzed the role and importance of the proxy statement in legal practice from the judge's point of view. For major difficult and complicated cases, the proxy statement submitted by both parties plays a very important role in the application of the law, the understanding of the law and the direction of the whole case. Secondly, the students' writing achievements were affirmed, and some common problems were solved according to the requirements of the competition. Finally, each of the eleven proxy statements was explained.

Mr. Luo Youcai, a prosecutor of Jiangsu Provincial People's Procuratorate, also explained the importance of the proxy statement, and at the same time sorted out the basic logic of the proxy statement, which should be basically the same as the logic of the judgment. Mr. Luo made a basic sorting out of the factual part of the case, and then explained each of the eleven students' proxy statements.

April 26th Criminal Law Competition Counseling Session

Mr. Liang Yunbao invited two experts to give a welcome and basic introduction to the criminal law part of the competition, and also explained the basic situation of the competition.

Mr. Deng Ling, a judge of Nanjing Intermediate People's Court, firstly positioned the public prosecution opinion required to be written in this competition. In the criminal court activity, after the legal investigation stage is over, the public prosecutor delivers a formal document in court during the court argument stage. Secondly, the whole case was explained in detail and the requirements of the test questions were analyzed in detail. Finally, the eleven public prosecutor's opinions were reviewed one by one according to the aspects not used.

Mr. Li Yong, director of the Legal Policy Research Office of Nanjing People's Procuratorate, gave a detailed explanation of what a public prosecution opinion is, the basic structure of a public prosecution opinion, and the standardization of language and writing. After that, guidance and analysis were given on the production of public prosecution opinion letters, and the public prosecution opinion letters of eleven students were explained one by one.

Under the guidance of the teachers inside and outside the school, Zhang Xiaohan finally passed the preliminary round and entered the final round. During the final round, at the invitation of the leaders of our school, Judge Zhang Songbo, Judge Si Jibin and Judge Luo Youcai from the Jiangsu Provincial High People's Court provided Zhang Xiaohan with valuable comments on the revision, and under the patient guidance of the teachers from outside the school and our teachers Bu Bing and Shan Pingji, Zhang Xiaohan entered the final round with the third place. At 10:00 a.m. on June 12, Xiamen University, as the organizer, announced the winners.

The winner's speech

Good morning, teachers and students, I am honored to share with you my experience of participating in the National Legal Writing Competition for Law Degree Students and my acceptance speech. I would like to thank Xiamen University and the Chinese Law Society for giving us LLM students an opportunity and platform to showcase and improve our legal writing skills.

I was ready to give up this year after I failed in the preliminary round last year, but my roommate encouraged me to continue to participate, and I never thought I would be lucky enough to make it to the final round of this year's competition.

At the beginning of this year's competition, Dean Ouyang Benqi of Dongda University School of Law attached great importance to the overall planning. From the beginning of the preliminary round, we invited judges and prosecutors from outside the university to give training lectures on writing legal documents for our participants. On April 25, Mr. Xiong Zhanglin, Mr. Shan Pingji, Mr. Ren Danli and Mr. Liang Yunbao invited judges and prosecutors from Nanjing Central Court and Provincial High Court to do training for our students who participated in the preliminary round. In the final round, we only had six days to prepare, but Mr. Xiong, Mr. Bu, and Mr. Shan all took their precious free time to talk to me on the phone many times about the controversial points of the case in writing. Judge Zhang Songbo and Judge Si Jibin of the Provincial High Court also took great pains to discuss the writing of the paper with me repeatedly, especially Judge Luo Youcai who called me on the boat to give me valuable advice when he was playing with his children on weekends, for which I am very grateful.

In fact, I had many problems with the first draft of each answer, which required repeated discussions and revisions between me and my instructors. Many times, when I thought of the unknown results and the effort I had put in, I wanted to give up, thinking that I would just hand it in. In order to live up to the efforts of my teachers and myself, I had to try to make every answer as perfect as possible. With this attitude of perseverance and persistence, I thought that even if the objective result of the competition did not reach the goal in my mind, I would not have any regrets about this wonderful competition.

This national legal writing competition hosted by Xiamen University is a rare opportunity in my life to learn, and it is the first time since I was an undergraduate that I am so close to the frontiers of academia and judicial practice, from which I have learned many issues that I have never thought about in monographs and academic papers, and I have also gained a new perspective on the application of law with the help of my instructors.

Finally, I would like to thank Dean Ouyang, Dean Xiong Zhanglin, Dean Shan Pingji, and my advisor, Mr. Bu Bing, for their care and guidance, my off-campus advisors for their help in my busy schedule, and especially my parents and my roommates for their support and encouragement! Last but not least, this June is the 120th anniversary of Southeastern University, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish Southeastern University a happy birthday! I hope to work hand in hand with students from all universities to dedicate my youth and strength to the cause of rule of law in China! Thank you all!