SPC, MOJ hold first legal training session for GBA lawyers

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Ministry of Justice (MO) jointly held the first training session on legal practices for lawyers from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) on July 19.

Vice-President of the SPC Yang Wanming and Vice-Minister of Justice Wang Zhenjiang addressed the opening ceremony. Paul Lam Ting-kwok, secretary for justice of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and Leong Weng In, director of the Legal Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR, on behalf of Secretary for Administration and Justice of the Macao SAR Cheong Weng Chon, also delivered speeches at the opening ceremony.

Wang Zhenjiang noted that the third plenary session was an important meeting held at a critical stage of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through a Chinese path to modernization, which is of great significance for further deepening reform comprehensively.

The GBA, of strategic importance in the country's new development pattern, will usher in major development opportunities, Wang added.

He said that the pilot program allowing Hong Kong and Macao lawyers to practice in mainland cities in the GBA represents an important measure to implement the central government's decisions and plans in supporting Hong Kong and Macao in better integrating into the overall development of the country and promote the meaningful participation of lawyers from the two regions in the development of the GBA.

Wang expressed the hope that lawyers from the GBA would steadfastly uphold the "one country, two systems" policy, keep the national interests in mind, and further advance the practice of "one country, two systems".

He encouraged lawyers from the GBA to actively integrate into the overall development of the country, fully tap into the legal service policies benefiting Hong Kong and Macao, provide high-quality legal services for the high-quality development of the GBA, and intensify pragmatic efforts to engage in the development of the rule of law in the country, so as to accelerate the building of the GBA into a highland of international legal and dispute resolution services.

More than 100 lawyers from the GBA participated in the training.

Heads of the relevant departments of the SPC and the MOJ and those of the Guangdong High People's Court, the Justice Department of Guangdong Province and the Guangdong Branch of the National Judges College also attended the opening ceremony.