Your Excellencies Ambassadors,

Distinguished Dean of Law School of Renmin University, Prof Han Dayuan

Honorable Judges and Dear participants,

Good morning!

First of all, please allow me, on behalf of Fangda Partners, to express our warmest welcome and sincere congratulations to everyone here. This is the 8^th Jessup China national round and we are very pleased to see that this year over 34 law schools from all over China are participating in this world-renowned moot court competition.

As the official sponsor of this moot court competition, Fangda Partners started our association with Jessup 5 years ago. Since then, we have being sponsoring the Jessup national round annually and send some of our most experienced lawyers to judge in the moot court.

The reason for our interest in and contribution to Jessup is that we have found Jessup provides a very effective way to develop the legal professional skills of young law school students. It teaches you how to handle a complex research task; how to manage a vast number of documents; how to fluently articulate a complex argument; and most importantly, how to present yourself in a court of law and communicate with judges.

 As a retiring judge here in China, I can guarantee you that all these skills—which you may or may not have a chance to learn in law school—will be extremely valuable when you work as legal practitioners later. And because young law school graduates develop these outstanding skills through this moot court competition, every year Fangda Partners proudly offers a few Jessup participants with internship opportunities and associate positions in our firm.

The transformation of both the structure and the fundamental nature of China’s economy and industries is now accelerating. We are in the middle of another round of comprehensive reform and of course, there will be great challenges. But one thing is for sure: there will be no change in our fundamental principles of opening-up and reform or in our striving to be an innovative country. And there will be no change in our policies of external peaceful co-existence and internal harmonious development, although of course we will have to react appropriately to external events. During this period, a rule of law, authoritative, accessible system of justice; and a transparent judicial system are urgently needed. We also need to enhance international cooperation.

You, young students, are the future of the world we are living in and most importantly the driving force to promote the rule of law in this dramatically changing country. Your character, professionalism and strength, and above all your youth, are resources of great importance for our future! You will be China’s more courageous and intelligent practitioners of the rule of law. Of course, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”. We are looking forward to hearing from you in the next few days and maybe later when we meet in the future.

I'd also like to take this chance to extend our sincere gratitude and my personal respect to Professor Zhu, for his relentless devotion and commitment to Jessup, which all of us have benefited a great deal from. "Thank you, Professor Zhu." 

Dear participants, we are looking forward to seeing your excellent performances as a result of the tremendous efforts you have devoted in preparing for this competition. I am sure we are going to witness another success this year. Good luck to all of you!

Thank you.