Top legislator Li Peng yesterday said that extra training for senior legislators has helped improve the quality of the country's laws.

The Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, held 30 lectures on the legal system during its five-year tenure.

"The lectures have helped the committee improve the quality and efficiency of law-making and oversee the implementation of laws," Li said yesterday when reporting on the committee's performance over the past five years to deputies to the 10th NPC.

"One needs professional training to understand the law," said Ying Songnian, professor and director of the Law Programme with the National School of Administration.

Ying, a leading scholar on administrative law, gave four lectures to the committee, including one on how China should improve its administrative laws to meet the challenges of World Trade Organization membership.

"The audience at these lectures are all legislators who influence the quality of the nation's laws," he added.

Ying's views were echoed by Wang Liming, professor of civil law with the Law School of Renmin University of China, who lectured senior legislators about tangible property laws.

"Most of the committee members have limited legal backgrounds, although they may have picked up some legal knowledge in their work," Wang said.

Wang said it was not easy to prepare the lecture because he had only a short time to explain important issues.

The lectures, started in 1998 when the Ninth NPC took office, covered a wide range of legislation including constitutional, civil, criminal and administrative laws.

They were usually held at the end of the committee's bimonthly sessions, with the most influential or authoritative scholars invited as speakers, said Zhang Pu, director of the NPC Training Centre.

"The lecture topics were selected according to the legislative and supervisory agenda of the committee every year," Zhang said.

All members were required to attend the lectures, Zhang said.

Li, the committee chairman, presided over each of them, he added.

Wan Shaofen, vice-director of the NPC Committee for Internal and Judicial Affairs, said: "I have learned a lot from these lectures. They helped me better focus on the crux of legislation which I might be unfamiliar with."

Li, the outgoing top legislator, gave the members of the Ninth NPC Standing Committee a book of the lectures late last month as a farewell gift.

(China Daily)